2843 - Erich Fritz Reuter (1911 Berlin – 1997 Berlin)

Erich Fritz Reuter (1911 Berlin – 1997 Berlin) "The Prophet I." Original title Bronze, dark brown patina, 1949. Marble plinth. Catalog no. Karpen 13A. One of only four documented examples of this early bronze (in two sizes). A Classical Modernist sculpture, reduced to its essentials and designed in a block-like form, depicting a striding man in a proclamatory pose, his right arm bent above his head. The title “The Prophet” first appeared in 1957 in a catalog published by the Anja Bremer Gallery in Berlin, which had been representing Reuter’s work since the mid-1950s. In 1977, a version cast in 1961 (103 cm) was exhibited at the SFB, and again at the Reuter retrospective organized by the NBK in 1981 at Galerie Werner Kunze. Reuter received a thorough technical and artistic education through an apprenticeship as a stonemason and sculptor, attendance at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 1950, he became an associate professor, and in 1966, a full professor of plastic arts at the Technical University of Berlin. Bronze height: 69 cm. Total height: approx. 73.3 cm. Lit./Catalog: Andreas Karpen: “Erich F. Reuter. Monograph and Catalog Raisonné,” Munich 2005, no. 13 with ill. (version with bronze plinth). Provenance: Dispersal of a private Berlin collection; likely acquired at the auction at Spik, Berlin, March 24, 2000, Lot 773. Dark brown patinated bronze, 1949. Marble base.