Lot 616 D

This spherical caryatid in the size of a worry stone is certainly the most unusual work of the artist. 'Here, a sculptor mustered the strength,' says Christa Lichtenstern, 'to create a self-sufficient sculptural cosmos out of his formal language - using sphere, joint, eye - defying the towers in his own way and opposing their anonymous cubic shape with an all-round rich, individual sculptural life.' (Christa Lichtenstern, Die Münchner Bildhauerschule heute: Wilhelm Uhlig, Herbert Peters, Fritz Koenig, in: Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, yearbook 18, 2004, p. 249).
The artist and art dealer Georg Staempfli, born in Bern, arranged Fritz Koenig's contact with the American architect Minoru Yamasaki, who planned the World Trade Center and its Plaza in the 1960s, realising them until 1971. In 1967, Koenig was commissioned to come up with an idea for a fountain on the Plaza in front of the World Trade Center and developed a spherical caryatid for the central sculpture in the middle of the planned basin, a 'penetration of the abstract and the organic,' says Christa Lichtenstern. (Christa Lichtenstern, Die Münchner Bildhauerschule heute: Wilhelm Uhlig, Herbert Peters, Fritz Koenig, in: Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, yearbook 18, 2004, (pp. 215-256), p. 248). One year later, the sculptor began the realisation and first built a workshop of corresponding size in which to build the sculpture, initially as a plaster model, in its original size. At the same time, the Institute for Hydraulics and Hydrology at the Technical University in Munich developed fountain technics suitable for the sculpture. In the summer of 1969, the Hans Mayr foundry in Munich began with the bronze cast. In 1971, 'Große Kugelkaryatide' was completed and was then dissembled into moveable parts and transported to the final assembly position in a 25-metre diameter stone basin. In 1972, the Koenig-Sphere, or Sphere for Plaza Fountain as the sphere composed of 52 bronze parts is popularly called, was ceremoniously bequeathed.
Weighing over two tons, 764 cm high, and with a diameter of 520 cm, the sphere rotates around its axis once within 24 hours. Koenig strives for contrast: the movement of the earth between the two static and austere giant towers in the metropolis of New York. And a miracle happened: the terror attacks on 11th September 2001 surprisingly did not destroy the sculpture; photos show the shiny golden sphere between the collapsed towers of the World Trade Center. It remained intact as a whole, albeit severely damaged. After dismantling and storage, 'The Sphere' was given a temporary new location in Battery Park in 2002. Since September 2017, the sculpture has been on display at Liberty Park as a monument to the attacks, about one kilometre south of its original location.