Ascension, 1929 (casting 2004)

About the Work

Otto Freundlich wanted to take a stand: “I […] fight for the liberation of people and objects from the practices of ownership, and against all that confines them and does not correspond to their true nature.” The title ‘Ascension’ refers to the idea of rising – or uprising – as a social phenomenon, but also to the free development of the mind and spirit. Individual and independent parts have been combined here to form a new whole – a sculpture vaguely reminiscent of an oversize bust. No sculptor before Freundlich attained a comparable degree of abstraction.