(Vienna 1907–1975)
‘Stehende Figur, monumental IV’, 1968, design for the Richard Wagner monument in Mainz, bronze, green patina, signed and numbered to margin Wotruba 2/7 (hammered), 44 x 20 x 35.5 cm, (K)

Jürg Janett, Fritz Wotruba Werkverzeichnis, Skulpturen, Reliefs, Bühnen- und Architekturmodelle, Erker-Verlag St. Gallen, 2002, pages 258 and 300

Compare:
catalogue raisonné pages 259 and 302, illustrations of ‘Große Figur’, 1969, monument to Richard Wagner, now in ownership of the City of Mainz, stands on the banks of the Rhine, near the Rheingold-Halle, Mainz.

Provenance:
Private Ownership (Family Ownership), USA - acquired direct from the artist.

A photocopy of a letter is available from Fritz Wotruba dated 6 October 1971 (addressed from Vienna, Blutgasse 5) in which he writes, “PS, the bronze now has a very lovely patina.”

From an article in the press

Is very often a reduction, a return to an ‘only’, an aggressive unveiling and unmasking, the particular intention of modern forms of expression: this does not apply to Fritz Wotruba’s column figures, to his heads and reclining figures, to the reliefs, torsi and his Striding Figure. The elementary forms from which he constructs the bodies, are far from being models for a pure, abstract formula for art; they remain present in an insistent manner.
The artist attempts to make tangible that which cannot be destroyed, and to ensure its continued existence. For this reason, his figures build on one another in a clear sequence. This growth occurs in the same way as it does with a seedling one internode after another. Each individual stalk appears stretched, which gives the sculpture a sense of something curiously striving. The masses which go to make up a body appear to be the embodiments of powerful, constantly self-generating forces; each element is offset against its neighbour, and yet resists its proximity, but without losing the connection. Each new formal element shows itself to be a link in a metamorphosis, as step and a particular manifestation, as an end and a new beginning, as a seeking and a finding.
Um Wotruba, Schriften zum Werk, Europa Verlag, 1967