The three great ones of art: Ernst Fuchs (center), Salvador Dalí (left) and Arno Breker.
© Foto Marco-VG, Bodenstein
The three great ones of art: Ernst Fuchs (center), Salvador Dalí (left) and Arno Breker.
© Foto Marco-VG, Bodenstein
Berlin/Schwerin (bpb) The controversial and much discussed Exhibition of the Year 2006 with the works of Arno Breker in the German city of Schwerin gives the occasion to remember documents of friendship. One of them is the statement of the painter Ernst Fuchs. He is the last living member of the Friends of the Golden Triangle, and on the occasion of Arno Breker's death on February 13, 1991 wrote the following homage:
„My good friend and the great German sculptor is dead!
Thus has also been lost the opportunity to make amends to him for all the incomprehensible persecution, to which he has been subjected for decades.
Since the ideas which gave rise to the persecution mania in the Third Reich have been completely reversed and turned against him, Arno Breker has never received the acceptance which he has earned. But I am completely certain that after his death his works will find the well-deserved fame!
Among the great artists and art lovers, Arno Breker has always had many prominent friends: Cocteau, Dalí, Peyrefitte, Professor Ludwig and many others. Those who have demonized him, only succeed in showing their own lack of talent!
But unfortunately, it is so: the dwarfs always pick the greatest one as their scare-crow.
I have seen Arno Breker still on his 90th birthday. He was then so full of vitality, that I was sure that he would live to be 100. What comforts me about his death is that he has been working till the end, and quite quietly passed away in his sleep.
Wit the end of the life of Arno Breker, an era in the field of sculpture of this century comes to an end. Breker was a true prophet of the beautiful in art. He has always sculpted--in the classical tradition--the beauty of the human being that was created by God, in such a masterful way that it has not been surpassed.
(Vienna, February 15, 1991)"
Commentary: The exhibition of the works of Arno Breker in the city of Schwerin, Germany, in the summer and fall 2006, has been prepared by the curator Rudolf Conrades and by the curator of the European Art Foundation, Marco Bodenstein. For the exhibition itself, also the ARNO BREKER MUSEUM at the Noervenich Castle near Cologne loaned some works of art.
The best publication about Arno Breker is the museum-quality pictorial volume „Arno Breker--A life for the Beautiful." It has more than 500 photographs from the life and work of the artist from all the various creative periods, and costs $ 75 plus $4 shipping. To order in the United States, contact Zavrel@meaus.com
© PROMETHEUS 111/2006
PROMETHEUS, Internet Bulletin - News, Politics, Art and Science. Nr. 111, SEPTEMBER 2006