Christoph Voll Lot n° 144

Christoph Voll Portrait of the literary critic A. F. Binz 1926/1960 Bronze. Height 90.2 cm. Unmarked. Numbered '0/5' on the lower edge on the reverse. - With beautiful brown patina. - Minimal traces of oxidation. Kassay-Friedländer 51 Provenance Christoph Voll estate collection, Denmark Exhibitions Cf. Berlin 1927 (Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf), Christoph Voll. Wood sculptures, watercolors, drawings, graphics, no no. (version in wood) Literature Wilhelm Weber, The sculptor Christoph Voll, in: exhib. Cat. Galleria del Levante, Milan/Munich 1975, cat. No. 21 (ill. no. 17a; version in wood); Anne-Marie Kassay-Friedländer, Der Bildhauer Christoph Voll, 1897-1939, Worms 1994, p. 106; Christoph Voll. Skulptur zwischen Expressionismus und Realismus, exhib. Cat. Gerhard Marcks-Haus, Bremen 2007, cat. p. 58 no., with full-page color illus. p. 19 (version in wood) The author and literary critic Arthur Friedrich Binz, who belonged to the artist's circle of friends in Saarbrücken, is depicted (see photo). From 1924 to 1928, Christoph Voll held a chair there at the State School of Arts and Crafts. Voll has exaggerated the way in which the head, an essential element of this sculpture, is raised out of the powerful, upwardly striving, elongated body, depicting him as an intellectual, a "head man": With his hands clasped behind his back and his chin thrust forward, he moves forward in a combative manner, as it were, reminiscent of Dix paintings created at the same time as well as caricaturist models in his expressionist conception. "How can a sculptor portray someone whose main characteristics are not of a physical nature? Voll solved the problem by exaggerating the forms to such an extent that they could become carriers of meaning for the spiritual and psychological characteristics." (Anne-Marie Kassay-Friedländer, Der Bildhauer Christoph Voll (1897 - 1937), Worms 1994, p. 107). After the oak version (Lempertz, Auction 831 Modern Art, December 4, 2002, lot 1097; 2002 - 2008 on loan to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, Hoh Collection, Fürth), the Galleria del Levante had an edition of five bronzes made in 1960, two of which are in the estate.