Rudolf Belling
head in mahogany, 1921

Artist
Rudolf Belling

Title
head in mahogany

Year of creation
1921

Technology and dimensions
Mahogany wood, polished, 52.5 x 21 x 21 cm

Year of acquisition
2004

For Belling around 1920, the “spatial quality” of sculpture became a crucial sculptural concern. “For me, plastic is primarily a concept of space, not an illustration modeled on two-dimensional visual effects as was previously the case,” he wrote to Alfred Flechtheim in 1920. "That's why I process the air in the same way as solid material and ensure that the breakthrough, previously called 'dead form', represents the same form value as its boundary, the processed material." In addition to highly abstracted works, there are always clear references to real forms, such as in "Head in Mahogany", which clearly continues expressionist and cubist design devices. This grotesque facial expression of a distorted face mask is accompanied by relevant precision and model-like breakthroughs. The result is a montage-like head vessel of oppressive bizarreness, which - located somewhere between archaic and caricature - simultaneously reduces the usual sculptural norms to absurdity.