Lot 460 D

Mataré applied a conscious process of abstraction to this “Recumbent Cow”. The compact shape of this resting animal is full of energy, created by its condensed, simplified geometric elements and a focus on essentials. In 1942 and 1943, Mataré created the “Triangular Cows” at Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau region, some in wood and some in bronze (see Schilling 214-217 and 233). The two dominant geometric shapes in all these works were triangles and trapezoids. In June 1942, Mataré made the following entry in his diary: “It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that, to create pure harmony, the outer shape of the animal must match its internal distribution. I clearly understand that neither the shape of the animal as such nor indeed the preformed block shape can serve as a starting point. The ideal way must be between those two. What is going on in all of us these days is a struggle between the far-too-subjective and the far-too-objective. This struggle imposes on me - as someone who works with sculptural shapes - a struggle between the subjective shape of the animal and its objective dependence on a given dimension.” (Sonja Mataré and Sabine Maja Schilling [eds.], Ewald Mataré, Tagebücher 1915 bis 1965, Cologne 1997, pp. 265 f).