Lot 218 Dα

The motif of the “Singender Mann” ultimately goes back to 1912, when Ernst Barlach sketched it for the first time - with the figure's eyes already shut (Wittboldt/Laur 1192; Schult III 966, charcoal drawing). The artist essentially develops the figure out of two dynamically converging, elongated ellipses: it is fascinating to trace these in the spatial organisation of the much later sculpture. Here the geometry and latent tension of the form derive - from the very beginning - from the natural attitude of the singer's body: leaning backwards in order to broadly expand his chest, the head, the slanted upper torso and the outstretched arms form an axis that is countered by the axis of the lower torso, between the leg lying spread out on the ground and the sharp angle of the raised knee.
The “Singender Mann” also appears in two graphic relief studies of 1915 and 1918, including “Singender Mann im Rund” (Wittboldt/Laur 1588; Schult III 1284, 1918, Nachlaß Güstrow). Barlach harmoniously adapts the motif to a circular form. This also seems indicative in terms of a preliminary formulation of the final proportions and nature of the sculpture, of its centring, of the calm it radiates and of the elementary, suggestive energy from which the “tone” transported by the human voice seems to flow.
Barlach has succeeded in capturing the man and his song in a timelessly expressive form and in rendering the transcendental nature of music tangible in his visual art. This also explains the immense popularity of the sculpture, which sold out only shortly after being offered in the Flechtheim edition and which was released in new casts from the post-war period until into the 1970s.