Seated Woman

From 1924 until 1932, shortly before Hitler came to power, Kirchner studied as a master student of Hermann Hahn at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At that time, a conception of art influenced by Adolf von Hildebrandt (1847 – 1921) was taught there, which was based on ancient and classical art and showed a strong tendency towards the figurative. This conception favoured sculptures designed with a view to flatness and distant effect. The Seated Woman from 1935 is the oldest work in the Burgberggarten. It was created during the National Socialist era. Just like in Kirchner’s first large-format nude figure from 1928, the Seated Woman also has a body that emphasises surfaces and is represented in a simplified form. Despite the contrast between the girlish breasts and the wide hip area, the figure appears balanced in its volume distribution. The face is more strongly emphasised than other parts of the body, but not so as to create an individual or personalising attribution, but rather with a view to forming a universal, harmonious human image. With its tendencies towards abstract design and the statuesque block-like nature of Egyptian sculptures, the Seated Woman goes beyond the conception of art based on the Munich academy’s tradition and formally distinguishes itself from the distorted, ideological and heroic human image in National Socialist sculpture. Although Kirchner was still involved in exhibitions until 1936, after the seizure of one of his works by the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in 1937 he called off any further participation in exhibitions, buried many of his bronze sculptures and almost completely stopped his work. Apart from small sculptures with neutral themes and genre representations, hardly any works from this period have survived.