Gerhard Marcks (1889 Berlin - 1981 Burgbrohl) (F), Falke', 1956

bronze, dark brown patina, height 19,5 cm, monogrammed in the casting, foundry stamp 'Guss. Barth Bln.', numbered 2/10, partially slightly rubbed, minimal white paint splashes, slightly corroded on the underside, glue residues under the claws, literature: Wvz. Marcks Tgb. G/B 440, Rudloff 649, with ill. p. 386

Gerhard Marcks was born in Berlin in 1889 and is considered one of the most important German sculptors and graphic artists. In his early creative years, he initially worked with Richard Scheibe, August Gaul and Georg Kolbe. Until 1919-1925, when he headed the pottery workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he also created his first expressionist-influenced woodcut series. Even before he was dismissed by the National Socialists and his art was defamed as "degenerate", he taught the sculpture class at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Halle/ Saale. Later, 1946-50, he continued to teach at the Hamburg Landeskunstschule and at the Werkkunstschulen in Cologne. In 1951 he was appointed juror of the art exhibition Eisen und Stahl, and from 1955 he was a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1971, the Gerhard Marcks House was opened in Bremen, which administers his artistic estate. In 1980, a year before the artist's passing, he was elected an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This outline in just a few lines already shows Gerhard Marck's extensive oeuvre - both as an artist and as a teacher. Certainly he also passed on his conception and techniques of creating figures to his students and was able to advance them himself through the symbiosis of teacher and apprentice. Dr. Arie Hartog, director of the Gerhard Marcks House, explains: "If you want to understand Marcks as a sculptor, the drawings are very important. He always drew from the model and then he took the drawings into his studio and, you could say, sent the model away. Because, he didn't want to be distracted by the model, but to then translate the form-finding that took place in the drawing into sculpture." It can be observed that the artist's human and animal figures were detached from the influence of ancient Greek sculpture and from the initial Expressionism, and were artistically directed by him towards more abstract and concise form. The structure of the figures, which often carry both, the naturalistic model and the stereometric forma, references in a harmonious balance, seems to be essential. It is precisely this reference to nature, the view of being able to find good and beautiful things in nature and to work out precisely these aspects in countless ways in sculptural form that is the artist's claim, which he adheres to in the execution of the bronzes. The artist shows an exquisite line management, thinks the lines almost like sculpture and skilfully transforms the natural creatures, the two birds, into figures. The hunting falcon with its aiming gaze, pointed beak and equally pointed wings, as well as the city pigeon with its slightly curved forms, demonstrate the artist's high understanding of form. We are therefore particularly pleased to be able to offer the falcon, which has only been on the auction market once before! The Richard Barth foundry was founded in Berlin in 1929 and is now based in Rinteln.