About this lot

Description

§ Oswald Herzog, (German, 1881-1939), reclining female nude, bronze, signed in the bronze, Noack, Berlin foundry mark 20.50 x 40cm (8 x 16in)
Other Notes: A Polish-born artist, Oswald Herzog, grew up in Germany and became renowned primarily as a sculptor. By 1919, when his works were first exhibited in the Galerie Der Sturm exhibition, Herzog was a well-established artist based in Berlin and associated with the famous Sturm circle of artists. Set up by Herwarth Walden (1879-1941), the German Expressionist artist and one of the greatest champions of German avant-garde art of his time, Der Sturm exhibitions became the mainstay of Berlin's modern art scene. Displaying the likes of Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Paul Klee, Gino Severini and others, the exhibitions aimed to introduce the works of Cubists, Italian Futurists and Expressionists to Germany. In 1933, Herzog's art was condemned as 'degenerate' and was exhibited at the 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition in Munich in 1937 among the 650 works of modern art deemed degenerate by the Nazi Party. In his own writings on art theory, Herzog often referred to his own work and labelled his sculptures as 'Abstract Expressionist'. By the 1920s, the human form and individualised modelling of his sculptures gradually gave way to more abstract, elongated and distorted shapes, only vaguely reminiscent of a human figure. The surfaces of his works are typically smooth and glossy. His sculptures, which come to the market rarely, have been likened to those of Alexander Archipenko and William Wauer.

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