GERHARD MARCKS | VENUS SICH DIE HAARE AUFBINDEND (VENUS UNTYING HER HAIR)

Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York (and sold: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, April 4, 1968, lot 172)

Mrs. L. Doniger, New York (acquired from the above sale)

Thence by descent

New York, Leonard Hutton Galleries, A Comprehensive Exhibition of Bronze Sculpture by Gerhard Marcks, 1967, no. 26, illustrated in the catalogue

Gerhard Marcks (exhibition catalogue), Graphisches Kabinett Baedecker, Essen, 1963, illustration of another cast n.p.

Acht Kölner Bildhauer (exhibition catalogue), Stadthalle Köln-Mülheim, Köln, 1964, no. 60, illustration of another cast n.p.

Gerhard Marcks (exhibition catalogue), Katharinenkirche, Lübeck, 1964, illustration of another cast n.p.

Gerhard Marcks—Handzeichnungen, Holzschnitte und Plastiken (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Brumme, Frankfurt, 1969, no. 77, illustration of another cast n.p.

Gerhard Marcks—zum zchtzigsten Geburtstag (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, 1969, no. 65, illustration of another cast n.p.

Gerhard Marcks, Plastiken Zeichnungen Graphik (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Ketterer, Munich, 1971, no. 43, illustration of another cast p. 26

Gerhard Marcks (exhibition catalogue), Musée Rodin, Paris, 1971-72, no. 45, illustration of another cast n.p.

Günter Busch, Gerhard Marcks, Das Plastische Werk, Bremen, 1977, no. 748, illustration of another cast p. 412

Venus sich die Haare aufbindend (Venus Untying Her Hair) is a consummate example of Gerhard Marcks’ mastery of form at the height of his mature career. Appointed Formmeister (“Form Master”) at the renowned Bauhaus school in 1919, Marcks served a sculpture instructor at a number of institutions until his work was declared “degenerate” by the National Socialist government spreading across Germany. Despite the destruction of much of his oeuvre due to the combined forces of Nazism, allied bombs and war looting, Marcks worked painstakingly after the war to produce new forms until his death in 1981. Blending classical and archaic influences with German Expressionism and Bauhus principles, Marcks produced a Venus for the post-war era.