Omnibus (1932)

Lehmbruck

Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin, Dezember 1931

GERMAN SCULPTURE
BY ALFRED H. BARR, JR.
GERMAN SCULPTURE is on the whole better known outside of Germany than is
German painting. Lehmbruck, Kolbe, and Ernesto de Fiori have long been figures of
international importance. Lehmbruck whose work was included in the Museum’s special
exhibition of last year is dead. Kolbe and de Fiori with the Swiss Hermann Haller may
be said to form a group whose work is interesting primarily through the modelling and
composition of the single human figure. They have all learned something from Maillol
and a little from archaic sculpture, medieval Greek, or Egyptian. Eike them Renee
Sintenis is primarily a clay modeller. Her work, confined principally to figurines of
animals, is essentially and charmingly feminine.
Ernst Barlach Stands apart. He has little interest either in the refinements of clay
modelling and bronze patine or in the problem of inventing variations in composing the
female figure. He is primarily a carver of wood inspired by Gothic wood sculptors.
Like them, Barlach uses voluminous draperies, expressionist gestures and faces which
have more character than sweetness. Barlach is a dynamic force as well as a maker of
figures. Related both to Barlach and to the Kolbe-de Fiori group is a younger sculptor
of great promise, Gerhard Mareks. Rudolf Belling is one of the few German sculptors
who can be called radically experimental. He can model with academic skill but prefers
a bolder program which carries him from caricature to abstract construction.
Many believe that German painting is second only to the School of Paris, and that
German sculpture is at least equal to that of any other nation.
Introduction to the Catalog of the Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York 1931.

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