The seated one

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The seated woman on the meadow slope opposite Villa Waldfrieden

The seated woman (sometimes also called the large seated or large seated robe figure ) is a bronze sculpture by the British sculptor Henry Moore , who called her Draped seated woman . It was publicly displayed in the Wuppertal area from 1959 . It has been in the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park since 2017 .

history

For the newly built Stadtbad Elberfeld ("Wuppertal Swimming Opera"), considerations were made at the beginning of 1957 to upgrade the space in front of the building with a sculpture . The available budget was 50,000 to 55,000 DM. Several designs by some well-known artists were already available. Those responsible in the art commission finally decided in a meeting on February 26th for Henry Moore. They were of the opinion that the modern architecture of the building best suited its style.

During a brief visit on March 31, 1957, Moore was impressed by the bold architecture of the building and suggested the figure of a seated woman, which he already had in the design. The originally requested amount for the order, which was brokered by the Galerie Czwiklitzer , was 78,000 DM. This purchase price could, however, be reduced to 50,000 DM through negotiations with Moore personally. The condition was that Moore was allowed to make two more casts of the bronze sculpture. These other casts should not be sold to Germany.

However, five more casts were made. According to the foundry mark on the back of the sculpture, the plastic was cast at Susse Fondeur in Paris. A designation in front above the base reads "Moore 1".

On the occasion of the reopening of the former Hall of Fame in Barmen (also called “ Barmer House of Art ”), the sculpture was presented to the public for the first time on October 11, 1958. It was exhibited in the entrance hall of the Haus der Jugend (today's official name). At its final location in front of the swimming opera, the pedestal with the planned five steps had not yet been completed, as it was unclear how it would be carried out for a long time.

Subsequently, Die Sitzende was exhibited on loan at documenta II , which took place in Kassel in the summer of 1959 . It is presented in the documenta catalog as follows:

"Large sitting female figure
on steps 1957/58
Bronze 155 x 160
City of Wuppertal"

On November 20, 1959, the sculpture returned to Wuppertal and was presented to the public in front of the swimming opera on November 24. However, the reaction in the population was mostly negative; numerous letters to the editor were published in the General-Anzeiger . The protests culminated in the fact that the plastic was tarred and feathered on the night of December 5, 1959 . In a letter of confession left at the scene of the crime, the protagonists regretted that no 100 frying pans had been made out of the person who was left behind . During the Wuppertal Carnival in 1960, the seated woman was the subject of discussion, where she was referred to as a Moore corpse at the carnival parade . Baudezernent Friedrich Hetzelt was so incensed that to the "it on April 1, 1960 Snow White had" put seven dwarfs added to protect them.

At the end of 1963, Die Sitzende was given away by the Wuppertal public utilities , which had previously been the legal owner of the work of art, to the art and museum association (today “Von der Heydt Museum”). The condition was that a new location had to be found for the plastic. Thus, at the end of 1965, it was decided that it should get its new place at the newly built theater on Bundesallee . A reader survey in the General-Anzeiger revealed a fifty percent rejection of those seated. It was also a theme again in the 1966 Carnival, it was converted into a Funkenmariechen and adorned three floats alone. And the Wuppertal (coat of arms) lion also marched through the valley as "the reclining figure" during the carnival parade. The move of the sculpture took place in September 1966, just in time for the opening of the theater on September 24th.

Henry Moore said about his work in the 1970s, among other things:

“ I am most moved by a sculpture that is full-blooded and self-sufficient, completely round, that is, the form elements are fully realized and act as contrasting masses ... it is not completely symmetrical, it is static, powerful and vital, it radiates something of the The energy and power of large mountains made of ... At first glance, plastic should contain a lot of unclear and hidden meaning. People should have the desire to continue looking and thinking about the sculpture; she should never say everything about herself immediately ... "

Meanwhile, the relationship with the sculpture is moderate. Some became aware that Wuppertal is one of the few cities that can call a robed figure their own. It is worth many times more today , a cast at Christie's 1998 auction proceeds of more than £ 570,000.

The seated woman was on the forecourt of the theater from 1966 to 1997. After it stood for some time in the forum of the Von der Heydt Museum, it was placed in the museum's depot. From 2010, after the swimming opera renovation was completed, she sat for six years in a niche in the entrance hall there. In 2016 it was part of a Moore exhibition in the Waldfrieden sculpture park . In the same year it went on loan to the Landesmuseum Münster . In 2017 she returned to Wuppertal, where she has since taken a permanent place in the open-air sculpture park on the meadow slope opposite Villa Waldfrieden .

Copies

Henry Moore: The Seated Woman - Cast # 6,
Hebrew University, Israel

According to the Henry Moore Foundation , six casts were made of the figure:

  1. From the Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
  2. London County Council , Stifford Estate Stepney, United Kingdom
  3. Musée des Beaux-Arts , Brussels, Belgium
  4. Yale University Art Gallery , New Haven, United States
  5. National Gallery of Victoria , Melbourne, Australia
  6. Hebrew University , Jerusalem, Israel

Exhibitions

  • 1958 - Barmer Hall of Fame, Wuppertal
  • 1959 - documenta II, Kassel
  • 1977 - the 50s. Aspects and Trends. From the Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
  • 1999 - Kunsthalle, Rotterdam
  • 2016 - Landesmuseum Münster

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Eva Rowedder: Von-der-Heydt-Museum Wuppertal 1987, Sculpture Collection Von-der-Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal 1987, ISBN 3-89202-004-3
  2. ↑ a b Elberfeld district ( memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) by Wolfgang Mondorf
  3. ↑ Christie's: DRAPED SEATED WOMAN: FIGURE ON STEPS, accessed December 2008
  4. ^ Wolfgang Stock: Wuppertal street names . Thales Verlag, Essen-Werden 2002, ISBN 3-88908-481-8
  5. ↑ Andreas Boller: Sitter goes on a journey In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of April 3, 2016.
  6. ↑ How Henry Moore developed his sculptures. In: Rheinische Post from April 11, 2016
  7. ↑ Thomas Kliemann: British Sculptor Museum in Münster celebrates Henry Moore in the context of his time . Kölnische Rundschau from November 15, 2016
  8. ↑ "Die Sitzende" is back in Wuppertal. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of June 2, 2017.
  9. ↑ From the Heydt Museum. Wuppertal beautifies heaven on earth. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of November 30, 1999.

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '11.7 "  N , 7 ° 8' 25.3"  E