Lot 62: Herzog, Oswald 1881 Haynau / Silesia - 1941(?) Genießen.

Around 1920. Bronze, brown patinated. 20 x 38,5 x 6,5cm. Signed left on the plinth: OH(lig.)erzog.

Literature:
Cf. Klara Drenker-Nagels, Rhythmus und Dynamik. Oswald Herzog - ein expressionistischer
Bildhauer. In: Weltkunst, 72. issue, No. 3 March 2002, p. 397 ill. of artist with the plaster cast of the sculpture and p. 398 ill. in Bronze (mirror-inverted).
Cf. Alfred Kuhn, Die neuere Plastik von Achtzehnhundert bis zur Gegenwart, Munich 1922,
p. 112 ill. 65

In 1898 Oswald Herzog comes to Berlin. Here, he at first occupies himself with Greek sculpture before he turnes to expressionism. "The acquaintance with Herward Walden and his 'Sturm'- circle provides Oswald Herzog with crucial impulses. Apart from Archipenko's cubist-abstract works which do not follow the model of nature anymore and are presented in the 'Sturm'- gallery in 1914, it is in particular the futurists' rythmic-dynamic works based on Henri Bergson's vitalist philosphy of life which fascinate Herzog. (.) In
his sculptures of the following years as for instance (.) 'Genießen' (around 1920) Herzog increases abstraction by gradually dissolving the basic natural human figure and abandoning individual characteristics." (translated from Klara Drenker-Nagels, Rhythmus und Dynamik. Oswald Herzog - ein expressionistischer Bildhauer, in: Weltkunst, 72nd issue March 2002, No. 3, p. 397 et seq.). "The most beautiful [Herzog] created is his 'Genießen', an abstract figure evoking female shapes which being completely aware of itself seems to fuse with the universe." (Translated from Alfred Kuhn, Die neuere Plastik von Achtzehnhundert bis zur Gegenwart, Munich 1922, p. 120).