Photography: Pieter Vandermeer
The Artwork
The sculpture Reclining Figure by Fritz Wotruba was purchased from the artist’s studio in 1971 and is one of the larger objects in his oeuvre. It was made in 1969 and forms part of a series of reclining figures he executed in stone and bronze from around 1960. Like the other reclining figures, this version consists of elemental forms.
The figure is composed of geometric volumes stacked on top of each other at different angles. In these block- and cylinder-shaped elements we recognize segments of body parts. It seems as if the sculpture is composed of individual parts. In reality, however, the limestone sculpture was cut from a single piece. Limestone was Wotruba’s favorite material. He wanted to keep the material and the working method visible and recognizable to the viewer: he often left visible as such the traces in the surface that were created by working with chisel, toothed iron or diamond saw.
The elongation of the figure emphasizes the long sides, which give the impression of forming the front view. The ends of the sculpture seem less important. This structure gives the sculpture a landscape-like appearance, something that can easily be reconciled with Wotruba’s following statement: “I dream of a sculpture, in which landscape, architecture and city become one! It can be a city like Marseille, a city blazing with heat, which suddenly changes shape, it becomes an immense sculpture, a gigantic figure, composed of white blocks and articulated by flat, horizontal terraces, set in a barren and motionless landscape…”
