Ernst Barlach, Die lesenden Mönche III
Ernst Barlach, Die lesenden Mönche III
Produced in 1932, Die lesenden Mönche III is a late re-visitation of a theme already treated by Ernst Barlach in 1921. The linear essentiality of the two monks recalls Italian fourteenth-century monumental statuary, encountered by the sculptor during a trip to Italy and reworked through the prism of Cubism. A wooden version of this bronze was confiscated and presented in 1937 at the exhibition of Degenerate Art, organised in Munich by the Nazi regime and inaugurated by Hitler in person, to subject works of art deemed “unworthy” to public derision: a dramatic stage in the purge conducted by National Socialism against avant-garde art.