Lot 493 Dα

The sculpture “Fahnenträger” programmatically illustrates the linking of art and radical politics sought by the “Cologne Progressives”. In addition to Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, the core of this loose-knit group of artists included Heinrich Hoerle and Gerd Arntz; their political programme was class struggle with the ideal of a Communism organised through soviet councils. Not just the inner contents, but also the outer form of their artistic expression was meant to serve this goal. As Seiwert put it, the content needed to “reconfigure the form to itself, content and form have to be struggle, solidarity, class consciousness of the proletariat” (cited in: Köln progressiv 1920 - 33, Seiwert - Hoerle - Arntz, exhib. cat. Museum Ludwig Cologne 2008, p. 23).
In this sculpture, Seiwert creates a symbol of the cohesiveness with which the workers gather together beneath the flag. In 1927 he realised the motif of a single flag bearer in an oil painting of the same name (see Bohnen 92, where it is still labelled as lost).
The plaster original also exists; it was initially owned by the de Wit family, who were close friends of Seiwert. After they emigrated to Russia, the sculpture went to the Kubicki family and - after receiving the approval of Juscha de Wit, presumably in the mid-1960s - they had this iron cast produced by the Buderus company. The plaster sculpture was sent back to Juscha de Wit and made its way from there to the collection of Gerd Arntz.