COMMONWEALTH ASSOCATION FOR EDUCATION,
ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
ISSN NO 2322-0147
2322
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 6
JUNE 2014
One of the best-known
best known German Sculptors of
the 20th century--- Georg Kolbe
(EDITOR--IN-CHIEF)
DR MUJIBUL HASAN SIDDIQUI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY,
ALIGARH-202002,
UTTAR PRADESH,
INDIA
website: www.ocwjournalonline.com
Excellence International Journal of Education and
Research (Multi(Multi subject journal)
Excellence International Journal Of Education And Research VOLUME 2 ISSUE 6
ISSN 2322-0147
One of the best-known German Sculptors of the 20th century-Georg Kolbe
By
Ramkrishna Ghosh
[Ph.D Research Scholar]
Mewar University
Gangrar, Chittorgarh (Rajasthan)
EMAIL ID [email protected]
Abstract:
Georg Kolbe (1877-1947) was one of Germany’s most influential sculptors in the first half of the
20th century. A member of the Berlin Secession, he distanced himself from traditional sculpture
and became a chief exponent of the idealized nude.From 1895 to 1897,Kolbe studied at the
Munich Academy of Arts. Between 1897 and 1901 he lived in Paris and Rome. He was
influenced by Rodin. He developed his technique in Paris, Dresden, and Munich, and from the early
stages his works had strong symbolic meanings. He became successful as soon as he moved to Berlin and
started working, and was noticed by the biggest art dealer in Germany. After his wife’s death in 1927,
Kolbe’s figures took on a more solemn and emotional air, whereas his later works focus on the
athletic male, an approach that found favour with the Nazis.
Keywords:Harmony, Heroic monumentality,Traditional sculpture, Figurative sculpture.
Georg Kolbe (15 April 1877 – 20 November 1947) was the leading German figure sculptor of his
generation, in a vigorous, modern, simplified classical style similar to Aristide Maillol of France.
Georg Kolbe was one of the most successful German sculptors of the first half of the 20th
century. Kolbe was born in Waldheim, Saxony. Kolbe, the son of an art-loving master-painter
first wanted to become a painter rather than a sculptor.
At the age of 16 he left school to attend painting and drawing classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule
in Dresden. From 1895 he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich and in
1897–8 for six months at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he won first prize in the drawing
class.
During this early period. Kolbe drew the attention of his contemporaries because of his symbolic
compositions. During his stay in Rome from 1898 to 1901, he began sculpting rather by chance;
the sculptor Louis Tuaillon aided him in the technical matters of moulding.
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In 1898 he went to Rome for three years, and there his interests turned to sculpture under the
encouragement of Louis Tuaillon and August Gaul. After returning to Germany, he met Max
Klinger in Leipzig, who became his friend and mentor. In 1904 Kolbe settled in Berlin, where he
became a member of the Secession. In 1909 he visited Rodin’s studio at Meudon in France, and
although he did not meet the sculptor, his style was nevertheless influenced by his work.
The sculpture of Rodin, which he studied closely during a sojourn of half a year in Paris in 1897,
and Louis Tuaillon awakened Kolbe's interest in sculpture. When Georg Kolbe moved to Rome
in 1898, Tuaillon, the most important Neo-Classicist sculptor played an important role. Kolbe's
first portrait sculptures were made under Tuaillon's guidance. After six years during which he
also travelled in Italy, France, Belgium and Holland, Kolbe decided to return to Germany and
moved to Berlin. He continued collecting new ideas and impressions during frequent trips
abroad.
In 1902 Kolbe returned to Germany, living in Leipzig for some time before moving to Berlin in
1904. At this time he abandoned painting completely. Very soon the young artist was successful
in the German capital, being admitted to the Berlin Secession and supported by Paul Cassirer, the
most important art dealer in the city. In 1905 Kolbe was one of the first scholarship holders at the
Villa Romana, Florenz.
Around 1911/12 Kolbe found his own formal expression in sculpture. The masterpiece of this
phase of his work is "Die Tänzerin" ("Ballerina") (National Gallery, Berlin). This bronze became
one of the best known German works of art of the 20th century. And Kolbe’s artistic purpose
became clear. He strived after an autonomous, modern presentation of the human body.
From the beginning the young artist's style differed from the commissioned traditional sculpture
of the late 19th century, which, under Emperor Friedrich II, had led to a widely criticized boom
of monuments. He was best known for his impressionist figure studies in the early period, many
of which are in American museums. During the Nazi regime, Kolbe turned to works of a more
aggressive nature, producing idealized figures of warriors and athletes.
At the outbreak of the war in 1914 he was sent to East Prussia and Poland as a volunteer. He
remained in military service until 1918 when he was sent to the Black Forest as an infantryman.
In the same year the Prussian Ministry of Cultural Affairs appointed him professor and in 1919 a
member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. During this period he was concerned with Cubist
concepts of form, while in his portraits he sought to convey the character of his sitters by
stressing specific aspects of their physiognomy, as in Paul Cassirer.
In 1919-1920s Kolbe practically did not work as a sculptor. During this time small-size
sculptures and drawings became central in his works. In this case what is meant is not work
sketches that appeared from time to time in the creative working process of the sculptor, but
quite large-size drawings. Kolbe preferred vellum paper without water marks, approximately 47
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by 37 centimetres, of light cream or bluish tone. There was only one technique used - a steel pen
and a brush. The sculptor drew with diluted Indian ink or regular ink without prior pencil
sketching.
There are few sculptors whose graphic works would be valued as highly as Kolbe’s drawings.
The master himself never showed his drawings separately from his other works; however, since
1921 they have become an integral part of all his exhibitions.The group of drawings displayed at
the exhibition belongs to the beginning of 1920s. Similar works by Kolbe performed between
1916-1917 and 1923-1924 are generally known as Blue Ink Drawings. The name to this group
was given by Walter Walentiner, a famous art historian and director of the Detroit Institute of
Arts, in his book. Though not all of his works of this period are performed precisely in this blue
tone, but it was important for us to emphasise the appearance of this colour in the sculptor’s
graphic works.
Kolbe almost always signed his drawings with a monogram and almost never dated them. That is
why it is not exactly known when he began to create these drawings. Most of the researchers
connect the largest part of his drawings with 1920-1921.
In most cases the theme of these drawings lies in a movement of a female model conveyed by a
swift, almost intuitively caught sketch. Only a few precise lines expressed on paper convey the
nature of a strained movement, a complicated and sometimes even provocative posture so
laconically and expressively. The work is finished with a few brush strokes that outline shapes
and bring the necessary dramatic effect and decorative elements into the composition of the
drawing.
The theme that unites all the works performed by Kolbe during the period of Blue Ink Drawing
is erotic origin. Almost one century later the perception of these works changed in many ways,
but in 1920s such sketches were considered to be quite scandalous. Different actresses and
dancers served as models for the artist. In 1920s the dancers who performed before the master
were a Javanese dancer Seeti Sundari, ‘barefoot’ ballet dancer - Charlotte Bara, variety dancers
Vera Skoronel and Palucca, Eva Reichlin from Red Dances group and a dancer Ted Schawn.
They were all very well-known in their times. However, it is very unlikely that at least one of
them is depicted in the exhibited drawings, it is more likely that none of them sat nude for the
artist’s drawings. At any rate, not even one of the exhibited drawings can be quite confidently
connected with anyone of these dancers who worked with the sculptor in 1920-1921.The
admiration by the perfection of a female body, smoothness of her shapes and plastique of her
movements is perceived in these drawings.
in 1921-1922 Kolbe made small sculptures - Cappriccio and Kniende (Kneeling Woman). They
reproduce the drawings almost without alterations. The sculpture Cappriccio attracted a lot of
attention because of extreme boldness of the model’s posture, that is why the sculpture’s drawing
was already published in 1920s. Kniende (Kneeling Woman) is also a well-known work, the
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reproduction of which was included in almost all the lifetime publications about the artist;
apparently it quite soon lost its graphic original.
The sudden and tragic death of his wife Benjamine in 1927 led to a strong incision in Kolbe’s
career, for afterwards his cheerful girls figures were replaced with works which expressed
sadness and loneliness (Requiem, Einsamer, Pieta, all owned by the museum). With vast
intensity Kolbe worked on monuments and cenotaphs dedicated to Beethoven (1926-47
Frankfurt/Main, erected posthumous) and Nietzsche (1931-47, not realized).
During the 1930s he turned towards a more heroic monumentality. In 1936 the
"Reichskulturkammer" accepted the "Deutscher Künstlerbund", of which Kolbe was the
chairman, as a member.
His sculptural work is heavily influenced by Aristide Maillol and August Rodin. After
participating in World War I, his work became more Expressionist and featured fairly attenuated,
more stylized figures. Kolbe’s primary subject matter is that of nudes in motion, often times they
are dancers.
Kolbe’s sculptures, predominantly of cast bronze, show his interest in movement. Above all, he
favoured the free-standing nude and sought harmonious forms to indicate a well-balanced spirit,
for example in Dancer (bronze, h. 1.54 m, 1911–12; Berlin, Alte N.G.). The work of his earlier
years is characterized by graceful female figures, but later restrained male figures predominate,
as in Resting Athlete.
Kolbe’s style changed again in the middle of the twenties simultaneously with the political and
economic reassurement of the Weimar Republic. The sculptor distanced his work from stylized
and unnatural proportions, instead fashioning athletic female figures in movement with sketchy,
light surfaces. His bronzes of this time found large resonance; they were shown in many singleand group exhibitions in Germany, Europe and the USA, and were bought for numerous
collections. The reputation of the sculptor can be seen in numerous portraits he created in the
second half of the 1920s . At that time Kolbe also executed several public commissions, for
example the helical Rathenaubrunnen in Berlin (consecrated 1930, destroyed in 1934, and
reconstructed in 1987). His success was also reflected in the construction of his large studio
house in Berlin-Western in 1928.
Kolbe's human figures of the thirties reflect the idea of role models, based on Nietzschean
philosophy. Having preferred figures in motion before, now standing figures in a degree of
stagnation came forth. In the "Ring der Statuen" (Ring of Statues) (1933-47 Frankfurt/Main,
erected posthumous) Kolbe combined seven male and female nudes in a community. The athletic
male nudes in particular were in accordance with the Nazi-regime ideals and were used for the
National Socialist propaganda. Georg Kolbe, however didn't want his work to be used for such
purposes and therefore rejected a commission for a Hitler-portrait. He took an interest in the
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Expressionist Artists he had befriended, for example as the last president of the "Künstlerbund"
(artist confederation), which was prohibited in1936. Nevertheless, it remained important to
Kolbe to show his work in exhibitions, even in the Third Reich, in doing so directly supporting
the politics of the NS-regime.
Kolbe’s sculpture Assunta (Assumption), which was originally produced in 1921, features an
elongated, slender woman posing as if in thought. The piece is perhaps referencing the biblical
story of the assumption, the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into the afterlife. The figure in
the sculpture is posed with knees bent with one foot slightly off the ground as if to suggest that
she is being lifted up like the Virgin Mary.
During the Third Reich it became difficult for him to find employment, and many of his works
were destroyed during World War II, either by bombings or by being melted for war
purposes.Towards the end of the war the artist's house and studio were damaged so that he
moved to Hiershagen in Silesia until the beginning of 1945.The artist, who suffered from cancer
and loss of sight in his last 10 years, worked until his death. Georg Kolbe died in November
1947 in Berlin.Renowned German figurative sculptor Georg Kolbe willed his home, property, art
collection, and library for the use of the public.
Conclusion
Kolbe worked through the first and Second World War, making strong and emotional pieces,
often bronze figures. He is noted for his statues of youths and girls, standing or turning freely in
space. His works are marked by harmony and integrity of images, clear modeling of forms,
fluidity of outlines, and the gentle play of color and shadow. Kolbe had the ability to convey
various aspects of movement. He created the monument to Ludwig van Beethoven in Frankfort
am Main (1927–47), designed a monument to the victims of fascism (1946), and sculpted portrait
heads.It was important to him to show off his work and present his vision to the people.
Therefore, he often directly worked under the Nazi regime during their reign. However, Kolbe is
known for having rejected a commission from the Nazis because they admired his athletic nude
male figures and wish to use them for propaganda purposes, which he did not agree with.
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References
Barron, Stephanie, Dube Dieter –Wolf, “German Expressionist Prints and
Drawings” , Publisher: Prestel Pub, 1st edition(May 1989), ISBN-10: 3791309595,
ISBN-13978-3791309590, p- 11, 135, 144, 149n.22.
Georg Kolbe: Bilderwerke. Leipzig [1939].
Georg Kolbe: Biography and Artistic Development http://www.georg-kolbemuseum.de/biography.htm
Kolbe, Georg, Green Mackeson, Margaret (Translator), “Undying Faces: A
Collection of Death Masks (1929), Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Co (1st June
2003), ISBN-10: 0766166406, ISBN-13: 978-0766166400.
Ursel Berger. Georg Kolbe – Leben und Werk, Berlin, 1990, No. 35
Wistrich, S. Robert, “Who’s Who in Nazi Germany”, Publisher: Routledge, 3rd
edition (September 27, 2001), ISBN-10: 0415260388, ISBN-13: 978-0415260381.
Wolters, A. Georg Kolbes Beethovendenkmal. [Frankfort am Main] 1951.
www.georg-kolbe-museum.de/biography.htm (by Dr. Ursel Berger).
http://www.miesbcn.com/en/pavilion.html
www.slider.com/enc/29000/Kolbe_Georg.htm
www.leonardhuttongalleries.com/artists/kolbe.html
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