From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Die Partei, Breker's statue representing the spirit of the
Nazi Party.
Arno Breker (July 19, 1900 – February 13, 1991)
was a German sculptor, best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, which
were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of so-called "degenerate
art".
He was born in Elberfeld, now Wuppertal and died in Düsseldorf.
Life
Breker was born in Elberfeld, in the west of Germany, the son of
a stone mason. He began to study architecture, along with
stone-carving and anatomy, and at age 20 was accepted to the
Düsseldorf Academy of Arts where he concentrated on sculpture. He
first visited Paris in 1924, shortly before finishing his studies.
There he met with Jean
Cocteau, Jean
Renoir, Pablo
Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and
Alfred Flechtheim. In 1927 he moved to Paris, which he thereafter
considered to be his home. He was quickly accepted by the art
dealer Alfred Flechtheim. He also established close relationships
with important figures in the art world, including Charles
Despiau, Isamu
Noguchi, Maurice de Vlaminck and André Dunoyer de Segonzac,
all of whom he later portrayed. He travelled to North Africa,
producing lithographs which he published under the
title "Tunisian Journey". He also visited Aristide
Maillol, who was later to describe Breker as "Germany's
Michelangelo".
In 1932, he was awarded a prize by the Prussian Ministry of
Culture, which allowed him to stay in Rome for a year. In 1934 he
returned to Germany on the advice of Max Liebermann. At this time Alfred
Rosenberg, editor of the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, actually
denounced some of Breker's work as degenerate art. However, Breker was
supported by many Nazi leaders, especially Adolf Hitler. Even Rosenberg later hailed
his sculptures as expressions of the "mighty momentum and will
power” (“Wucht und Willenhaftigkeit”) of Nazi Germany.[1] He took
commissions from the Nazis from 1933 through 1942, for example
participating in a show of his work in occupied Paris in 1942, where he met Jean Cocteau, who
appreciated his work. He maintained personal relationships with Albert Speer and with
Hitler. In 1936 he won the commission for two sculptures
representing athletic prowess, intended for the 1936 Olympic games,
one representing a Decathlete (“Zehnkämpfer”) and the other The
Victress (“Die Siegerin”). In 1937 he married Demetra Messala, a
Greek model. The same year, Breker was made "official state
sculptor" by Hitler, given a large property and provided a studio
with thousand assistants. Hitler also exempted him from military
service. His twin sculptures The Party and The
Army held a prominent position at the entrance to the Reich
Chancellery.
The neoclassical nature of his work, with
titles like Comradeship, Torchbearer, and
Sacrifice, typified Nazi ideals, and suited the
characteristics of Nazi architecture. On closer
inspection, though, the proportions of his figures, the highly
colouristic treatment of his surfaces (the strong contrasts between
dark and light accents), and the melodramatic tension of their
musculatures perhaps invites comparison with the Italian Mannerist sculptors of the
16th century. This Mannerist tendency to Breker's neoclassicism may
suggest closer affinities to concurrent expressionist tendencies in German Modernism than is
acknowledged.
Until the fall of the Third Reich, Breker was a professor of
visual arts in Berlin. While nearly all of his sculptures survived
WWII, more than 90% of his public work was destroyed by the allies
after the war. In 1948 Breker was designated as a "fellow traveller" of the Nazis and fined,
upon which he returned to Düsseldorf. The latter city remained his
base, with periods of residence in Paris. During this time he
worked as an architect. However, he continued to receive
commissions for sculptures, producing a number of works in his
familiar classical style, working for businesses and individual
patrons. He also produced many portrait sculptures. In 1970 he was
commissioned by the king of Morocco to produce work for the United
Nations Building in Casablanca, but the work was destroyed. Many
other works followed, including portraits of Anwar Sadat and Konrad
Adenauer. Breker's rehabilitation continued, culminating in
plans for the creation of a Breker museum, funded by the Bodenstein
family, who set aside the castle of Nörvenich (between Aachen and
Cologne) for the purpose. The Arno Breker Museum was inaugurated in
1985.
Breker's rehabilitation led to backlashes from anti-Nazi
activists, including controversy in Paris when some of his works
were exhibited at the Pompidou Center in
1981. In the same year anti-Breker demonstrations accompanied an
exhibition in Berlin. Breker's admirers insisted that he had never
been a supporter of Nazi ideology (despite being a member of the
Nazi Party), but had simply accepted their patronage.
Breker's last major work was a monumental sculpture of Alexander
the Great intended to be located in Greece.
Portraits (mostly in
bronze)
Arno Breker's Grave in Düsseldorf
- Baron von Mirbach, 1920
- Friedrich
Ebert, Berlin 1924 (erster Staatsauftrag)
- Walter Kaesbach, Düsseldorf, 1925
- Artur Kaufmann, 1925
- Herbert Eulenberg, 1925/26
- Otto Dix, Paris
1926/27
- Isamu
Noguchi, Paris 1927
- Hermann Kesser, 1927
- Moissey Kogan, Paris 1927/28
- Inge Davemann, 1928
- Albert Lindgens, 1928
- Walter Lindgens, 1928
- Illa Fudickar, 1929
- Robert Gerling, 1929
- Arnold von Guilleaume, 1929
- Jean Marchand, 1929
- Mossey Kogan, 1929
- H. R. von Langen, 1929
- Alberto Giacometti
- Isolde von Conta, 1930
- Abraham Frohwein, 1930
- Heinrich Heine, 1930
- Edith Arnthal, 1930/31
- Demetra Breker, 1931
- Nico Mazaraki, 1931
- Robert Valancey, Paris 1931
- Prince Georg of Bavaria,
1932
- Andreas von Siemens, Berlin 1932
- Nina Bausch, 1933
- Demetra Breker, 1933
- Olga von Dahlgreen, 1933
- Arthur Kampf, 1933
- Victor Manheimer, 1933
- Nora von Schnitzler, 1933
- Robert de Valencay, 1933
- Max
Liebermann, 1934
- Gottfried Bermann-Fischer, 1934
- Max Baldner, 1934
- Kurt Edzard, 1934
- Graf von
Luckner, 1934
- Anne-Marie Merkel, 1934/35
- Pütze von Siemens, 1934/35
- Kurt Edzard, 1935
- Anne-Marie Merkel, 1935
- Pütze von Siemens, 1935/36
- Carl Friedrich von Siemens,
1936
- Leo von König, 1936
- Joseph
Goebbels, 1937
- Paul
von Hindenburg, 1937
- Wolfgang Reindl, 1938
- Adolf
Hitler
- Richard
Wagner, 1939
- Gerda Bormann (wife of Martin Bormann), 1940
- Edda Göring (daughter of Hermann Göring), 1941
- Albert Speer,
1941
- Grete Speer (wife of Albert Speer), 1941
- Bernhard Rust
- Gerhart
Hauptmann, 1942
- Serge Lifar,
1942/43
- Aristide
Maillol, 1942/43
- Alfred
Cortot, 1942/43
- Abel Bonnard,
1943
- Wilhelm
Kreis, 1943
- Maurice de Vlaminck, 1943
- Claude Flammarion, 1944
- Gottfried Ude-Bernays, 1945
- Johannes Bork, 1946
- Lothar Albano Müller, 1950
- Ludwig Hölscher, 1952
- Gustav Lindemann, 1952
- Wilhelm
Kempff, 1953
- Emperor Haile Selassie I of
Ethiopia, 1955
- Rolf Gerling, 1956
- Hans Gerling
- Friedrich Sieburg, 1961
- Jean Cocteau,
1963
- Jean Marais,
1963
- Henry de Montherland, 1964
- Marcel
Pagnol, 1964
- Roger
Peyrefitte, 1964
- Jeanne Castel, 1964
- Paul Morand,
1965
- Jacques Benoist-Méchin,
1965
- Henry Picker
- André Dunoyer de Segonzac,
1966
- Marcel Midy
- Ezra Pound,
1967
- King Mohammed V of Morocco
- Princess Ira von Fürstenberg
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline,
1970
- Salvador
Dalí, 1974/75
- Ernst Fuchs, 1976/77
- Leopold Sedar Senghor, 1978
- Anwar El
Sadat, 1980
- Ernst
Jünger, 1981/82
- Arno Breker, Selfportrait, 1991
Sculptures 1935–1945
- Prometheus (1935)
- Relief am Gebäude der Lebensversicherung Nordstern, Berlin
(1936)
- Der Zehnkämpfer fürs Olympia-Stadion, Berlin (1936,
Silvermedal)
- Die Siegerin fürs Olympia-Stadion, Berlin (1936)
- Dionysos fürs Olympia-Dorf, Berlin (1936)
- Der Verwundete (1938)
- Der Rosseführer (1938)
- Anmut (1938)
- Fackelträger („Die Partei“) im Hof der Neuen Reichskanzlei
(1939)
- Schwertträger („Die Wehrmacht“) im Hof der Neuen Reichskanzlei
(1939)
- Der Künder (1939)
- Der Wäger (1939)
- Bereitschaft (1939)
- Der Rächer (1940)
- Kameraden (1940), Breker-Museum
- Bannerträger (1940)
- Abschied (1940)
- Vernichtung (1940)
- Opfer (1940)
- Schreitende (1940)
- Der Wächter (1941)
- Psyche (1941)
- Berufung (1941)
- Der Sieger (1942)
- Kniende (1942)
- Eos (1942)
- Flora (1943)
Reliefs
- Der Genius (1938)
- Der Kämpfer (1938)
- Apollo und Daphne
- Auszug zum Kampf (1941)
- Aufbruch der Kämpfer (1940/41)
- Der Rufer (1941)
- Orpheus and Eurydice (1944, Breker-Museum)
Books by and on Arno
Breker
- Dominique Egret (Hg.): Arno Breker. Ein Leben für das Schöne, A
life for the Beautiful, 352 S., 600 Photographs, 1997, German,
English, French. ISBN 3-87847-157-2.
- Hermann Leber: Rodin, Breker, Hrdlicka ISBN 3-487-10722-8
- Volker G. Probst: Das Pietà-Motiv bei Arno Breker. 1985.
- Volker G. Probst: Der Bildhauer Arno Breker – Eine
Untersuchung, Marco Edition, ISBN 3-921754-07-0.
- Volker G. Probst: Das Bildnis des Menschen im Werk von Arno
Breker, Studio de L'Art 1981 Berlin, Marco-VG, ISBN
3-921754-13-5.
- Arno Breker: Schriften, 190 S., zahlreiche Abbildungen,
Einleitung F.J. Hall, Marco Bonn-Paris-New York, ISBN
3-921754-19-4.
- B. John Zavrel: Arno Breker - His Art and Life, 1985 West-Art
USA, ISBN 0-914301-01-2
- Arno Breker: Begegnungen und Betrachtungen, 1987, Marco
Paris-New York, ISBN 3-921754-27-5.
- Dr. Hans Klier: Arno Breker - Form und Schönheit, 1978
Salzburger Kulturvereinigung, Marco-Edition Bonn-Paris.
- B. John Zavrel: Interview with Arno Breker: The divine Beauty
in Art, New York, 1982, West-Art USA ISBN 0-914301-04-7.
- Uwe Möller: Arno Breker - Zeichnungen - Drawings - Dessins
1927-1990, Bildband mit 110 Handzeichnungen, Museums-Edition. ISBN
3-921754-37-2
- Roger Peyrefitte: Hommage a Arno Breker, 1980, Marco-Editeur
Paris. mit 8 Originallithographien.
- Reagan/Bush/Carstens: Salut America (zu 300 Jahre Einwanderung
USA), Lithographien von Arno Breker. West-Art, N.Y.
- Charles Despiau: Arno Breker, 1942, Bildband zur Retrospektive
in der Orangerie Paris. Edition Flammarion/Frankreich.
- Paul Morand, Dali, Fuchs u.a.: Hommage a Arno Breker zum 75.
Geburtstag des Künstlers 1975, Edition Mourlot/Marco Paris.
- Rolf Schilling: Eros und Ares - Begegnung mit Breker, 1994,
Edition Arnshaugk ISBN 3-926370-21-1
- Arno Breker - Über allem Schönheit, Farb-Katalog als Festgabe
zum 100.Geburtstag. Edition Dr. S. Nöhring/Museum Europäische
Kunst
Films /
Video
- Arno Breker – Harte Zeit, starke Kunst, by Arnold Fanck, Hans
Cürlis, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, Berlin (1944)
- Arno Breker - Skulpturen und Musik, by Marco J. Bodenstein, 20
Minuten, Marco-Edition Bonn.
- Arno Breker - Deutsche Lebensläufe, Farbfilm 60 Minuten,
Marco-VG, Bonn
- Paris-Rom-Berlin und Arno Breker, and Interview with Albert
Speer. Farbfilm, 60 Minuten, EKS Museum Europäische Kunst, Schloss
52388 Nörvenich.
See also
External
links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
