Coat · Feather · Fin

From times immemorial, animals have been a fascinating motif for painters and sculptors. The exhibition “Coat · Feather · Fin” at the Salongalerie “Die Möwe”, from 30 September to 21 December 2017, is devoted to the representation of animals in painting, graphic arts, and sculpture. Among the exhibited works there are quite expressive animal representations from the artistic estate of Fritz Keller (1915–1994), a second-generation Expressionist, and by Martin Stekker (1878–1962), whose œuvre, just as Keller’s works, was only rediscovered a few years ago. Josef Hegenbarth, Curt Lahs, and Gerhard Marcks, too, saw the animal as man’s soulful vis-à-vis.
 
If to the sculptor August Gaul (1869–1921) the animal had become the most important, almost exclusive, object of his art, this was also due to a permanent complimentary ticket for the Berlin Zoo he had won in 1890. Henceforth, he became an ardent visitor of the zoo, painting and drawing the animals that were kept there. Today, August Gaul is seen as one of the major German sculptors of animals of early Modern Art. Our exhibition shows his sculptures of a bear and an elephant. August Gaul has decisively inspired an entire generation of sculptors. Just like August Gaul, Renée Sintenis (1888–1965) captures the beauty, dynamics and litheness of free movement in her sculptures. August Gaul is also the great example to Philipp Harth (1885-1968), who had achieved his breakthrough as a sculptor of animals in 1925. The sculptures “Giraffe” and “Donkey” are characteristic for Harth’s mode of sculpting. Meticulously studied by him, the natural model is gently transformed into its sculptural shape.
 
In addition to the paintings and sculptures by the artists mentioned here, works – realistic or abstract - by other painters, too, show the dignity and beauty of animals.
 
Opening: 29 September 2017, 6 pm
 

August Gaul | Bear | 1914 | bronze | signed and casting stamp | 5 x 9.5 x 3
August Gaul | Bear | 1914 | bronze | signed and casting stamp | 5 x 9.5 x 3

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