Bronze
220 x 107 x 100 cm
Edition 4/6
KML 01.04
Purchased with funds from the Stiftung zur Errichtung eines Kunstmuseums
The sculpture impressively illustrates the crucial concerns of an artist who was among Europe's trailblazing pioneers of abstract art. Composition marks the beginning of the most important phase in the artist's creative life. Freundlich wanted his works of art to figure as a visual experience: his works (paintings and drawings as well sculptures) were to turn the seeing of art into an active achievement. The compositions, an assemblage of smaller units, allow viewers to trace their development step-by-step until acquiring a dynamic overall impression. Viewers are therefore actively involved in the process of seeing.
The view of the sculpture keeps changing as we walk around it, progressively revealing new relations. From one viewpoint, the architectural structure predominates and from another, the physiognomic impression, only to be followed by transformation into move- ment that sweeps upwards. What initially appeared to be an abstract sculpture gradually coalesces into a whole in which multiple perspectives come together to form a "community of forces" . In this respect, the oeuvre of Otto Freundlich, who was murdered by the Nazis, is a manifesto for freedom.
