Large cubist/abstract sculpture attr. to Hebert Straesser with a very good provenance: the former collection of famous architect Walter Brune (with documentation).

Clear, angular forms combine with round ones, are added and subtracted, jagged is interlocked with soft. The composition is rhythmic, repetitive, diverse, even playful. The many different, similar, but not quite identical forms create a changing and exciting relationship with the space around them. The geometrically reduced elements combine to form a two-part group of figures that oscillate between representational and abstract. Each of the figures has human features, faces, arms and legs The posture is almost regal, if it were an image two important persons sitting. Although not signed, this sculpture bears similarities to the works by Herbert Strässer.

“Even with forms apparently reduced to pure ‘signs’ (Strässer) is initially guided by nature, the human figure, the challenge of grouping (…)” (Wolfgang Kermer, in: Plastiken, Skulpturen, Reliefs, Drawings, Herbert Strässer, exhibition catalog Saarbrücken 1968, n.p.). This sculpture is related to Strässer’s early, Cubist-influenced creative phase and shows formal similarities to works by Ossip Zadkine, Henri Laurens and Jacques Lipchitz, but is highly independent in its formulation. Magnificent casting with a wonderfully smooth, angular surface. Total height is 49 cm.

Video from a studio visit to Herbert Straesser.