Sale: 424 / Modern Art, June 11./13. 2015 in Munich Lot 240

 

240
Ernst Barlach
Der Zweifler, 1930.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800

(incl. surcharge)
Der Zweifler. 1930.
Bronze with light brown glazing patina.
Schult 385. Laur 470. Verso with name. Presumably one of 27 unnumbered copies cast since 1938. Laur mentions an edition of 46 copies. Height: 51 cm (20 in). [SM].

Accompanied by an expertise issued by Ernst Barlach Lizenzverwaltung, Ratzeburg, from 26 November, 2014.

EXHIBITION: Ernst Barlach 1870 - 1938, Galerie Alex Vömel Düsseldorf, 1 - 31 October, 1951, cat. no. 20.
Ernst Barlach. Plastik Zeichnungen Druckgraphik, Städtische Galerie München, 7 August - 4 October, 1959, cat. no. 48.
Ernst Barlach. Plastik und Graphik, Galerie Valentien Stuttgart, October/November 1965, cat. no. 10.
Ernst Barlach. 1870-1970, Ministerium für Kultur der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, January/February 1970, p. 28.
Ernst Barlach. Bronzeplastiken Unbekannte Zeichnungen aus dem Nachlaß in Güstrow, Akademie der Künste der DDR im Pretiosensaal des Dresdner Schlosses, 12 October - 13 november, 1977, cat. no. 26.
Ernst Barlach zum vierzigsten Todestag, Galerie Nierendorf Berlin, 13 September - 5 December, 1978, cat. no. 26 with illu.
Ernst Barlach zum fünfzigsten Todestag. Plastiken Zeichnungen Druckgraphiken, Galerie Nierendorf Berlin, 21 November, 1988 - 14 February, 1989, no. 165 with illu. p. 67.
Ernst Barlach. Bildhauer der Moderne, Tophane-i Amire Kültür ve Sanat Merkezi Istanbul und Goethe-Institut Teutonia-Haus Istanbul 17 March - 30 April, 2006/Museum für Anatolische Zivilisation Ankara und Goethe-Institut Anakara, 9 May - 4 June, 2006, cat. p. 165 with color illu.

LITERATURE: selection:
Elisabeth Laur, Volker Probst, Ernst Barlachs Druckgraphik. Ein Forschungsprojekt der Ernst Barlach Stiftung Güstrow, in: Mitteilungen des Museumsverbandes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V., 9th year. 2000, p. 24.
Elisabeth Laur, Der Bildhauer als Buchkünstler, in: Anne Buschhoff, Ernst Barlach. Kaviar statt Brot, Kurt Reutti, Sammler und Stifter, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen 2001, p. 27.
Ernst Barlach. Wege und Wandlungen. Vom Jugenstil zum Expressionismus, Museumsberg Flensburg, Ribe Kunstmuseum, Ernst Barlach Stiftung Güstrow, Güstrow 2002, no. 26.
Ernst Barlach. Mystiker der Moderne, Ernst Barlach Gesellschaft Hamburg, Hauptkirche St. Katharinen, Hamburg 2003, p. 308.
Volker Probst, Ernst Barlach. Zwischen Himmel und Erde. Plastiken und Graphik, Schloss der pommerschen Herzöge Stettin, Stettin 2005, no. 15.
Ernst Barlach. Retrospektive, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto/The University Art Museum, Tokyo/National University of Fine Arts and Music, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art/Kofu, Kyoto 2006, no. 146.
Each with different copy described and exhibited respectively.

"Der Zweifler" is one of the most important sculptures in Barlach's later creation. He referenced his personal situation in life with the sculpture's design. He had found its basic conception in the lithograph "Der Blinde" from 1918. The struggle for a decision and the doubts involved are masterly expressed in the folded hands and the weary facial expression. The deeply human ability to feel doubt in making the right decision is hardly addressed in arts, at least not in visual art. It still is an issue for literature. Ernst Barlach managed to visualize his inner existential fears with this sculpture. He focuses on the hands and the face as relevant means of expression. Additionally, the aspect of the kneeling posture hints at a kind of renunciation that is part of the doubts. In times that saw man as a sort of bearer of the future, entirely without any doubt in his own ways also depicted as such by leading sculptors in Germany in these days, the thought of such a sculptor alone was daring. Ernst Barlach shouldered this risk. It is the document of an unrelenting artist personality at the brink of inner resistance.



240
Ernst Barlach
Der Zweifler, 1930.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800

(incl. surcharge)