2837 - Ludwig Kasper (1893, Gurtis – 1945, Braunau)

Ludwig Kasper (1893, Gurtis – 1945, Braunau) "Resting" (also titled "Crouching"). Original title Bronze, patina in shades of gray and green, 1935. Monogrammed "K," foundry mark "GUSS BARTH RINTELN." Signed, titled, and dated on a plaque; Wvz. No. 81. Posthumous casting made after 1970 from an edition of 7 copies, one of which is owned by the Municipal Museum in Braunschweig and is located in front of the building on Löwenwall. Kasper executed his mostly life-size sculptures primarily in marble cement and plaster; during his lifetime, he produced only a few bronze castings; aside from financial considerations, the decisive factor was likely that, according to Werner Haftmann, he found them “inappropriate to his sculptural vision.” This cast is also based on an original marble-cement sculpture (in a private collection). It depicts the nude figure of a young woman resting on a rectangular plinth, her right hand placed behind her head in a relaxed pose. Everything is designed for balanced harmony, both in the pose and in the proportions. Kasper was certainly inspired to create his “Reclining Figure” by Aristide Maillol, particularly his “Méditerranée.” Alongside Hermann Blumenthal and Gerhard Marcks, Kasper belongs to a small group of sculptors active in Germany who succeeded in maintaining their independent visual language even during the restrictive era of National Socialism. Their works were influenced by Maillol and early Greek Classicism; while they did not conform to the official, heroic-pathos-driven artistic doctrine, this also meant they offered only limited grounds for explicit criticism. Kasper had studied under Hermann Hahn at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts from 1912 to 1925. During a stay in Paris in 1928–29, he absorbed the contemporary art movements and studied the art of ancient Greek civilizations at the Louvre. From 1930 to 1933, a decisive stylistic shift took place; he turned increasingly toward full-figure works, and his nude figures were increasingly characterized by a reduced, summary formal language. In 1933, Kasper moved to Berlin, where he found a place in the Klosterstraße studio collective. Alongside Kasper, Marcks, and Blumenthal, Käthe Kollwitz, Werner Gilles, and Werner Heldt also worked there. The young art historian Werner Haftmann was also part of this circle. He sought to defend the formal language of sculptors such as Kasper and Blumenthal and, in an article published in 1934, called for the “unconditional establishment of an autonomous sculptural manifesto.” This stood in contradiction to Nazi art policy, which became increasingly restrictive over the course of the 1930s. Kasper had been exhibiting at the Academy of Arts since 1930, and he was also able to show works there in 1935–36. To make ends meet, Kasper relied on private collectors and grants. In 1936, Kasper received a grant from the Berlin Academy to study in Greece, where he was able to continue his studies of early Greek art on site. In 1940, he was awarded the Rome Prize, which included a one-year residency at the Villa Massimo. Kasper held his first solo exhibition in Berlin in 1939 at the modern-oriented Karl Buchholz Gallery; that same year, Haftmann’s first monograph on Ludwig Kasper was published. Bruno Kroll and Herbert Gribitzsch published multi-page, illustrated articles about Kasper in *Kunst für alle* in 1939 and 1943. In 1943, Kasper took up a professorship at the Braunschweig School of Applied Arts, but was forced to leave due to bombing and return to Upper Austria. After 1945, Kasper’s works were exhibited, among other places, at the first documenta (1955) in Kassel. A large number of originals are preserved at the Upper Austrian State Museum in Linz. H. 85.5 cm. Lit.: Bruno Kroll: “Tektonische Plastik,” in “Die Kunst für alle,” Vol. 54, 1938–1939, Issue 4, January 1939, pp. 99–105, ill. p. 99 (“Hockende”). The catalog raisonné is available online at www.ludwig-kasper.de; “The Reclining Figure” at www.ludwig-kasper.de/werksverzeichnis-61-90.html. Provenance: from a private collection in southern Germany. Bronze with a patina in gray and greenish tones, 1935. Signed with the monogram “K,” foundry stamp “GUSS BARTH RINTELN.” Inscribed, titled, and dated on a plaque. Posthumously cast after 1970 in an edition of 7.