Otto Gutfreund

Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum, The Pleasures of Collecting: Part II, Modern and Contemporary Art, 2003

Umělecký Měsíčník (Journal of Art, monthly), I, 1911-1912, another cast
Josef Cisarovsky, Otto Gutfreund, Prague, 1962, pp. 116-117, nos. 8 & 9, other casts illustrated
Miroslav Lamac, Modern Czech Painting, 1907-1917, Prague, 1967, p. 47, another cast illustrated
Peter Cannon-Brookes, Czech Sculpture 1800-1938, London, 1983, p. 83, pl. 125, another cast illustrated
Zazemi Tvorby, Otto Gutfreund, Prague, 1989, p. 292, no. 162, another cast illustrated
Czech Moderism, 1900-1945, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, exh.cat., 1990, p. 34, another cast illustrated
Le Cubisme à Prague, Château de Biron, Dordogne & Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy. exh. cat., 1991, p. 97, another cast
Expressionism and Czech Art 1905-1927, National Gallery, Prague, exh. cat., 1994, p. 113, no. 7, illustrated
Otto Gutfreund, National Gallery, Prague, exh. cat., 1996, p. 190, no. 44, another cast illustrated
Czech Art 1890-1930: From Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Setagaya Art Museum, exh. cat., Tokyo, 1999, p. 117, another cast
Steven A. Mansbach, Modern Art in Eastern Europe.  From Baltic to the Balkans, ca 1890-1939, Cambridge, 1999, p. 28, pl. 31, another cast illustrated
Jiří Hlušička, The Hascoe Collection of Czech Modern Art, Prague, 2004, p. 25, mentioned; p. 198, no. S85, catalogued; p. 69, pl. 51, illustrated

Bronze, rich dark brown-black patina. Overall in good condition.
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Anxiety is an exceptional example of Expressionist ideology and form by the most renowned Czech sculptor of the 20^th century. The very subject is of deep intellectual and spiritual import, representing the Expressionist preoccupation with the breakdown of the relationship between man and the world. Anxiety was an emotion experienced acutely by the greatest Expressionist artists and writers, and making tangible the human condition under deep strain was seen as exposing the distressed core of the individual within contemporary society.

The very handling of the medium by Gutfreund is an indication of his emotional commitment made physical and visible. The coarse, vigorous planes, uneven and each unique, are deep-rooted sentiments building up to a climactic whole. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's explanation of his own work can also apply to this masterpiece by Gutfreund: '... each curvature and cavity [was] formed by the sensitivity of the creator's hand, each sharp blow or tender carving expressing the immediate feelings of the artist' (quoted in Charles W. Haxthausen, 'Review: German Expressionist Sculpture. Cologne', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 126, no. 977, London, 1984, p. 520).

Gutfreund's stay in Paris from 1909-1911 had a formative influence on his artistic output. There he explored the work of Rodin, including such works as the French sculptor's iconic representations of Balzac and the Burghers of Calais (fig. 1). He also came into contact with Cubism at a time when Picasso had just completed his seminal analytical Cubist sculpture Tête de Fernande (fig. 2). Drawing on this experience Gutfreund began to discard traditional concepts of form and representation in his work in search of a more intense and immediate emotional expression. In so doing Gutfreund adopted the planar rhythms of Cubism and Anxiety became the first three-dimensional realisation of the formal problems and existential states explored by the Czech Cubo-Expressionist. Anxiety also contains undertones of premonition: only a few years after its creation in 1911-12, Gutfreund again departed for Paris, but his plans, like those of other Czech artists then living in France, such as Emil Filla, were disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.

Fig. 1, August Rodin, Monumental Figure of Pierre de Wiessant from the Burghers of Calais, 1885-1900, Private Collection

Fig. 2, Pablo Picasso, Tête de Fernande, 1909, Private Collection © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2011