Sale: 590 / Evening Sale, June 06. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125000487
Lot 125000487 
125000487
Igor Mitoraj
Porta Italica, 1997.
Bronze with brown patina
Estimate:
€ 300,000 - 400,000
$ 339,000 - 452,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Porta Italica. 1997.
Bronze with brown patina.
Signature, date, and foundry mark in the lower right part of the neck. Copy "EA". Excluding base: 203 x 135 x 115 cm (79.9 x 53.1 x 45.2 in). Base: 150 x 135 x 115 cm (59 x 53,1 x 45,2 in).
• Igor Mitoraj deconstructs the ancient ideal by incorporating surreal moments.
• Reflection on transience, beauty, and myth.
• Another copy of this bronze is in the Parc Olympique in Lausanne.
• In 1986, the artist participated in the Venice Biennale.
• Currently, Mitoraj's sculpture “Testa Adddormentata” is on display at the Museum Oederan DIE WEBEREI in his birthplace as part of the exhibitions for Chemnitz as the European Capital of Culture.
• Monumental sculptures by Igor Mitoraj can be found in public spaces around the world, including La Défense, Paris, in front of the British Museum in London, in Citygarden, St. Louis, Missouri/USA, and Abute Sculpture Park, Hokkaido/Japan.
"Igor Mitoraj [was] a unique figure, one of the great artists of our time, who, with the deeply cultivated creativity of his Central European origins and his Parisian education, was able to create a parallel world in which the gods, heroes, and archaic myths of the Western world dwell among us through his sculptures."
Cristina Acindini, superintendent at the Florence State Museums
“My ideal would be to disappear, to physically merge with a sculpture.”
Igor Mitoraj, quoted from: Antioco Zucca in MEDEA V, 1, 2019
Bronze with brown patina.
Signature, date, and foundry mark in the lower right part of the neck. Copy "EA". Excluding base: 203 x 135 x 115 cm (79.9 x 53.1 x 45.2 in). Base: 150 x 135 x 115 cm (59 x 53,1 x 45,2 in).
• Igor Mitoraj deconstructs the ancient ideal by incorporating surreal moments.
• Reflection on transience, beauty, and myth.
• Another copy of this bronze is in the Parc Olympique in Lausanne.
• In 1986, the artist participated in the Venice Biennale.
• Currently, Mitoraj's sculpture “Testa Adddormentata” is on display at the Museum Oederan DIE WEBEREI in his birthplace as part of the exhibitions for Chemnitz as the European Capital of Culture.
• Monumental sculptures by Igor Mitoraj can be found in public spaces around the world, including La Défense, Paris, in front of the British Museum in London, in Citygarden, St. Louis, Missouri/USA, and Abute Sculpture Park, Hokkaido/Japan.
"Igor Mitoraj [was] a unique figure, one of the great artists of our time, who, with the deeply cultivated creativity of his Central European origins and his Parisian education, was able to create a parallel world in which the gods, heroes, and archaic myths of the Western world dwell among us through his sculptures."
Cristina Acindini, superintendent at the Florence State Museums
“My ideal would be to disappear, to physically merge with a sculpture.”
Igor Mitoraj, quoted from: Antioco Zucca in MEDEA V, 1, 2019
A European artistic path
Igor Mitoraj is deeply rooted in European history thanks to his origins and life story. The son of a French prisoner of war and a Polish foreign worker, he grew up with his mother outside Warsaw after the war. In 1963, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Polish capital. He attended the class of the famous theater director, painter, and art theorist Tadeusz Kantor, then continued his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1968. After a study trip to South America, Igor Mitoraj focused on sculpture. His first major success came with his solo exhibition at the legendary Paris gallery “La Hune.” This was followed by awards such as the “Prix de la Sculpture de Montrouge” and the opportunity to move into a studio in the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre. In 1979, he visited Pietrasanta in Tuscany for the first time.
Pietrasanta - The city of sculpting as a creative home
This place between Carrara and Pisa is a popular spot for sculptors. In an interview in the newspaper “La Repubblica,” published in 2011, Mitoraj said, “Me, Botero, Finotti, Yasuda, Ciulla, Fonseca—we wanted to be sculptors in the city of sculpture.” At that time, the town, a tourist hotspot today, was still a quiet haven for artists. In 1983, he returned to this inspiring environment. He opened a studio to be around like-minded sculptors and highly professional artisans, such as mold makers and foundries, who were essential to his work.
Italy and Paris, as well as antiquity and classical sculpture, were his living sources of inspiration, determining the themes and style of Mitoraj's oeuvre.
Ancient mythology in a contemporary context
He created his iconic sculptures in Pietrasanta. These works resemble ancient models but are unique modern expressions. He reinterprets classical aesthetics without becoming neoclassical. His art powerfully reminds us of the fragility of human existence.
Porta Italica combines two approaches characteristic of his oeuvre: fragmentation of the sculpture and transformation into something monumental.
Igor Mitoraj's figures are torsos or fragments, such as the face here, which, as a fragment, is reminiscent of a mask. “In keeping with Adorno's view that radical incompleteness is fundamental to the work of art, each of Mitoraj's works looks like a fragment of a larger sculpture, reminding us that this fundamental topos of Modernism has its origins in Romanticism's obsession with the classical fragment.” (Quoted from Donald Kuspit, in: Artforum, www.artforum.com/events/igor-mitoraj-215086/).
Through fragmentation, Mitoraj deliberately draws the viewer's gaze to pieces that precisely trigger the emotions and associations he seeks to evoke, creating a reflexive effect that invites the viewer to pause and contemplate, almost forcing them to do so.
In the present “Porta Italica,” this effect is intensified by small sculptural fragments incorporated into the large, mask-like face. A male torso is integrated at the front. It is a small variation on the “Vulcano” motif, which Mitoraj worked on repeatedly. A variation on “Casa dello scultore” (1991) is integrated into the back. The approach is reminiscent of the pictorial composition of surrealists such as Giorgio de Chirico or Salvador Dalí, but the French-Polish artist finds his own unique, dramatic expression. Perhaps the early influence of his teacher at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Tadeusz Kantor, who was best known for his work as a stage designer and his productions, is evident in the “staged” appearance of Mitoraj's sculptures.
Unique expression with a philosophical dimension
Igor Mitoraj draws on ancient mythology without replicating it, using it rather to reflect on contemporary themes such as alienation, memory, and identity. “Porta Italica” also reveals the roots of the present in antiquity and offers glimpses into art history. The fleeting nature of human existence is depicted with poetic presence. In their monumentality, the works radiate a metaphysical calm that springs from the recognition of the order of being. This transcendent serenity is a unique feature of Igor Mitoraj's formal explorations and makes his works so sublime and exceptional. [EH]
Igor Mitoraj is deeply rooted in European history thanks to his origins and life story. The son of a French prisoner of war and a Polish foreign worker, he grew up with his mother outside Warsaw after the war. In 1963, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Polish capital. He attended the class of the famous theater director, painter, and art theorist Tadeusz Kantor, then continued his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1968. After a study trip to South America, Igor Mitoraj focused on sculpture. His first major success came with his solo exhibition at the legendary Paris gallery “La Hune.” This was followed by awards such as the “Prix de la Sculpture de Montrouge” and the opportunity to move into a studio in the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre. In 1979, he visited Pietrasanta in Tuscany for the first time.
Pietrasanta - The city of sculpting as a creative home
This place between Carrara and Pisa is a popular spot for sculptors. In an interview in the newspaper “La Repubblica,” published in 2011, Mitoraj said, “Me, Botero, Finotti, Yasuda, Ciulla, Fonseca—we wanted to be sculptors in the city of sculpture.” At that time, the town, a tourist hotspot today, was still a quiet haven for artists. In 1983, he returned to this inspiring environment. He opened a studio to be around like-minded sculptors and highly professional artisans, such as mold makers and foundries, who were essential to his work.
Italy and Paris, as well as antiquity and classical sculpture, were his living sources of inspiration, determining the themes and style of Mitoraj's oeuvre.
Ancient mythology in a contemporary context
He created his iconic sculptures in Pietrasanta. These works resemble ancient models but are unique modern expressions. He reinterprets classical aesthetics without becoming neoclassical. His art powerfully reminds us of the fragility of human existence.
Porta Italica combines two approaches characteristic of his oeuvre: fragmentation of the sculpture and transformation into something monumental.
Igor Mitoraj's figures are torsos or fragments, such as the face here, which, as a fragment, is reminiscent of a mask. “In keeping with Adorno's view that radical incompleteness is fundamental to the work of art, each of Mitoraj's works looks like a fragment of a larger sculpture, reminding us that this fundamental topos of Modernism has its origins in Romanticism's obsession with the classical fragment.” (Quoted from Donald Kuspit, in: Artforum, www.artforum.com/events/igor-mitoraj-215086/).
Through fragmentation, Mitoraj deliberately draws the viewer's gaze to pieces that precisely trigger the emotions and associations he seeks to evoke, creating a reflexive effect that invites the viewer to pause and contemplate, almost forcing them to do so.
In the present “Porta Italica,” this effect is intensified by small sculptural fragments incorporated into the large, mask-like face. A male torso is integrated at the front. It is a small variation on the “Vulcano” motif, which Mitoraj worked on repeatedly. A variation on “Casa dello scultore” (1991) is integrated into the back. The approach is reminiscent of the pictorial composition of surrealists such as Giorgio de Chirico or Salvador Dalí, but the French-Polish artist finds his own unique, dramatic expression. Perhaps the early influence of his teacher at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Tadeusz Kantor, who was best known for his work as a stage designer and his productions, is evident in the “staged” appearance of Mitoraj's sculptures.
Unique expression with a philosophical dimension
Igor Mitoraj draws on ancient mythology without replicating it, using it rather to reflect on contemporary themes such as alienation, memory, and identity. “Porta Italica” also reveals the roots of the present in antiquity and offers glimpses into art history. The fleeting nature of human existence is depicted with poetic presence. In their monumentality, the works radiate a metaphysical calm that springs from the recognition of the order of being. This transcendent serenity is a unique feature of Igor Mitoraj's formal explorations and makes his works so sublime and exceptional. [EH]
125000487
Igor Mitoraj
Porta Italica, 1997.
Bronze with brown patina
Estimate:
€ 300,000 - 400,000
$ 339,000 - 452,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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