Sale: 415 / Modern Art, June 06. 2014 in Munich Lot 363

 

363
Fritz Klimsch
In Wind und Sonne, 1936.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 73,200 / $ 79,056

(incl. surcharge)
In Wind und Sonne. 1936.
Bronze with gray green patina.
Braun 176. With monogram in ligature as well as foundry mark "H. Noack Berlin" on plinth. Height: 148 cm (58,2 in).

One of the artist's most graceful standing nudes.

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia.

EXHIBITION: (presumably each different copy)
XI. Olympiade, Berlin 1936. Olymischer Kunstwettbewerb, 15 July - 16 August, 1936, cat. no. 138, p. 24 (there with title: "Entspannung").
World Expo, Paris 1937.
Special exhibition, Fritz Klimsch. Plastik, exhibition venue Tiergartenstrasse 21a, Berlin, 26 March - 4 May, 1938, no. 10.

LITERATURE: (presumably each different copy)
Uli Klimsch, Fritz Klimsch. Die Welt des Bildhauers, Berlin 1938, p. 52, illu. pp. 102/103.
Walter Manggold, Fritz Klimsch, in: Die Kunst für Alle, 55th vol., 1939-40, pp. 108ff. illu. p. 110.
Egbert Delby, Fritz Klimsch, Berlin 1942, p. 34 (with illu.).
Hermann Braun, Fritz Klimsch. Werke, Hanover 1980, no. 28, p. 72 (with illu p. 73).

Fritz Klimsch trained at the Königliche Akademische Hochschule für die bildenden Künste [Royal Fine Art Academy] in Berlin in the drawing class taught by the painter Ernst Hancke and in the modelling class under Albert Wolff. From 1887-1890 he was a pupil of Fritz Schaper's. While still a student, the young sculptor produced his first important work, winning awards and his first taste of recognition. On his wedding trip to Paris, Klimsch became acquainted with Rodin's work, which greatly impressed him with its liveliness of form and expression and left a lasting influence on him. Klimsch regarded Adolf von Hildebrand as second only to Rodin as the inspiration behind his art. Hildebrandt supplemented Rodin's liveliness with tectonics and statics, thus creating the balance Klimsch felt was so important to his own sculpture. In 1898 Klimsch founded the Berlin Secession jointly with Max Liebermann and Walter Leistikow and was represented on a regular basis at the exhibitions the group mounted. Travels to Italy and Greece shaped his style. Klimsch was subsequently extraordinarily successful with portraits, monuments and funerary sculpture as well as female nudes. He did a great many portraits of distinguished representatives of cultural and political life, including Ludwig Thoma, Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt and Paul von Hindenburg. In 1912 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts and in 1916 a senator of the Academy. Appointed to the Akademische Hochschule für bildende Künste in 1921, he retired in 1935 after heading the master class studio there.

Die jugendliche Frauengestalt "In Wind und Sonne" in ihrer festen Körperlichkeit ist eines der Werke von Fritz Klimsch, die weit über das rein Statuarische hinausgehen. Der Verfasser des Werkverzeichnisses, Hermann Braun, beschreibt sie wie folgt: "In kaum einem anderen Werk der dreißiger Jahre sind die sich abstoßenden Pole 'Ruhe' und 'Bewegung' so kunstvoll und überzeugend miteinander verbunden worden[..]. Das zur Seite gewandte Antlitz mit dem wehenden Haaren verrät gleichzeitig Hingabe und Erstaunen über die Mächte des Kosmos. - Dieser Mädchentyp ist gewiss nicht 'nordisch'; eigenartig das Antlitz: Es erscheint lieblich in der Seitenansicht, herb von vorn." (zit. nach: Braun, S. 382). Die edlen Proportionen der Gestalt einer jungen Frau, die sich ganz dem Erleben von Wind und Sonne hingibt, sind den Plastiken von Fritz Klimsch, vor allem denen der dreißiger Jahre immanent. Das Ideal der vollkommenen Frau, die Schönheit und Weiblichkeit in sich vereint, war Diktum und Sinnbild der Zeit. Klimsch hat auf unnachahmliche Weise dieses Ideal kultiviert und mit seinen Plastiken einen künstlerisch bemerkenswerten Beitrag zur Plastik der dreißiger Jahre geschaffen.

After the war the artist settled in the Black Forest to live in seclusion, producing from then on only a few works in small formats. In 1960 Fritz Klimsch was awarded the Große Bundesverdienstkreuz and died that same year.




363
Fritz Klimsch
In Wind und Sonne, 1936.
Bronze
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 73,200 / $ 79,056

(incl. surcharge)