Fritz Wotruba
14 May - 09 Nov 2014
Fritz Wotruba
Print from the Cycle Hommage à Michelangelo, 1975
Photo: Harald Eisenberger, © Fritz Wotruba Privatstiftung
Print from the Cycle Hommage à Michelangelo, 1975
Photo: Harald Eisenberger, © Fritz Wotruba Privatstiftung
FRITZ WOTRUBA
Hommage à Michelangelo
Drawings and Sculptures
14 May - 9 November 2014
An exhibition by the Fritz Wotruba Private Foundation
Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) numbers among the most prominent sculptors in
20th-century Europe and is considered a classic of modern sculpture. The focus of the exhibition is on about 50 drawings and several important stone sculptures made between 1925 and 1975. The show is to illustrate how the sculptor prepared the process of the reduction of the human body in his drawings – a process that frequently only came to bear on his sculptures later on. In many cases, the drawings must thus be seen as autonomous works, which, in their relentless straightforwardness, show the artist at the acme of his creative potentials. They revolve around and condense Wotruba’s notions of the figure and provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him, thanks to which he manages to translate the spontaneity and unrestrained quality of his ideas into the sculptures.
To mark the 450th anniversary of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s death, this exhibition addresses Wotruba’s lifelong fascination with this genius of sculpture and showcases his graphic series Homage à Michelangelo of 1975. In these 26 drawings Wotruba conducts an imaginary dialogue with the esteemed master and reflects on the creative process behind sculpture. This last sequence of works, created just a few weeks before Wotruba’s death, can be deemed his artistic legacy.
Hommage à Michelangelo
Drawings and Sculptures
14 May - 9 November 2014
An exhibition by the Fritz Wotruba Private Foundation
Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) numbers among the most prominent sculptors in
20th-century Europe and is considered a classic of modern sculpture. The focus of the exhibition is on about 50 drawings and several important stone sculptures made between 1925 and 1975. The show is to illustrate how the sculptor prepared the process of the reduction of the human body in his drawings – a process that frequently only came to bear on his sculptures later on. In many cases, the drawings must thus be seen as autonomous works, which, in their relentless straightforwardness, show the artist at the acme of his creative potentials. They revolve around and condense Wotruba’s notions of the figure and provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him, thanks to which he manages to translate the spontaneity and unrestrained quality of his ideas into the sculptures.
To mark the 450th anniversary of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s death, this exhibition addresses Wotruba’s lifelong fascination with this genius of sculpture and showcases his graphic series Homage à Michelangelo of 1975. In these 26 drawings Wotruba conducts an imaginary dialogue with the esteemed master and reflects on the creative process behind sculpture. This last sequence of works, created just a few weeks before Wotruba’s death, can be deemed his artistic legacy.