The larger-than-life portrait bust HEINRICH HEINE will be unveiled in 2006 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the poet at the Noervenich Castle near Cologne. It is the only monument that will be set up during this anniversary year. The fine bust was created in 1980 by the sculptor Arno Breker. The photo shows a version in Ara marble.
Nörvenich (bpb) The poet Heinrich is in the center of a celebration taking place in 2006, organized by the Arno Breker Society. The occasion is the 150th anniversary of the death of the poet, who died on February 17, 1856 in Paris, according the the ABS president Uwe Möller. Preparations are being made for the exhibition of a larger-than-life portrait bust of the young Heine, which was created by the sculptor Arno Breker. The bust will be unveiled in summer in the Museum Europäische Kunst at the Nörvenich Castle near Cologne, Germany.
„Heine belonged to the favorite poets of Arno Breker", recalled Möller. The sculptor started working on a monument already back in 1928. In an art competition, organized by the poet's home town of Düsseldorf, Breker's portrait received the 2nd place for a life-like portrait. The controversial 1st prize went to Georg Kolbe for his sculpture "Kneeling Youth". Therefore, it did not come to awarding the commission to either of the two artists. Eleven years later, in 1942, in Breker's exhibition in the Orangerie in Paris, the "Jeune poete" was one of the exhibited artworks.
Then, in 1956 a female figure in bronze by Aristide Maillol was set up in Düsseldorf as a Heine monument. The impulse for this was given by Maillol's friend, the sculptor Arno Breker. The industrialist Hugo Henkel donated the bronze.
In late 1970s, Breker returned to the Heine theme. His figure of the young Heine was set up on the island Norderney by the "Heinrich Heine Monument Society", led by Dr. Herman Lohausen. In Düsseldorf, a monumental death mask of Heine by the sculptor Bert Gerresheim was set up as a temporary "monument".
„We would like to keep in our memory Heine as the poet of the youth, just like him Arno Breker envisioned", said the ABS President Möller. In Breker's words: "stirring, full of ideas, active, persistent, spiritual and full of hope", and as one who saw himself as an "intermediary between Germany and France".
© PROMETHEUS 105/2006
PROMETHEUS, Internet Bulletin for Art, News, Politics and Science. Nr. 105, MARCH 2006