Portrait Of Hans Gerling - Arno Breker (1900-1991)

Bronze with a nuanced greenish brown patina raised on a marble base cast by A. BISCHOFF Düsseldorf dated "Allensbach 1956" Germany 1956 total height : 51 cm our web catalog link : https://galerietourbillon.com/breker-arno-portrait-dhans-gerling/ Galerie Tourbillon : Free valuation - Buy and Sell at best prices Biographie : Arno Breker (1900-1991) was a German sculptor. He was the son of the sculptor, Arnold Breker. In order to take over the management of the family business, he studied at the School of Decorative Art in Elberfeld between 1916 and 1920 and between 1920 and 1925 he continued his studies at the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf. After traveling to France, North Africa and Italy (where he won the Prix de Rome in 1932), Arno Breker returned to Germany in 1934, after which he won the silver medal at a competition open to the public for the Olympics of Berlin, for having realized two scuptures Athlete of decathlon and Victory. In 1937, abandoning the style of his youth, he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Berlin, he was noticed by the Ministry of Propaganda Reich who gave him several orders. The Nazi regime then put at its disposal three large sculpture workshops in which dozens of practitioners worked, including, during the war, forced French and Italian workers, asked by Breker. Breker produced many sculptures to the glory of the ideology of the regime. He worked on the Germania project, the redevelopment of Berlin with Albert Speer. Hitler regarded Breker as one of the artistic geniuses of the Third Reich. On June 23, 1940, he accompanied the latter in his visit to Paris. He took part in an exhibition of his works at the Orangery in occupied Paris in 1942. This exhibition, which was variously appreciated, was greeted enthusiastically by intellectuals, including Jean Cocteau. If Breker was not directly involved in the Nazi plunder of artistic heritage in France, he acquired nonetheless works at extremely low prices. In 1945, his three workshops were destroyed with works found there, especially plaster for future sculptures of Hitler's urban projects. Arno Breker was never prosecuted for honoring orders placed by the Nazi regime, and he still refused to express regret or apology, saying the artists had nothing to do with politics. It seems that he never adhered to the National Socialist racist ideology but accepted this regime by "opportunism and megalomania". He intervened in favor of many artists pursued by the Nazis. In Paris, Arno Breker protected Pablo Picasso, then communist, from officers of the Kommandantur. Arno Breker also saved the German publisher Peter Suhrkamp who had been arrested after being strongly suspected of resisting Hitler. After the war, he opened a new studio in Düsseldorf. Orders came back, mainly from industrialists in post-war Germany. He continued to maintain relations with French intellectual circles including alumni of the time of the Collaboration: Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Paul Morand, Jacques Benoist-Méchin. From Germany, he received a lot of busts orders. He also made those of Cocteau and Jean Marais. In the 1960s, he made a sculpture of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He continued to sculpt until his death in 1991.