Page 18 - Studio International - December 1965

Andreas Urteil Roland Goschl
Figure Group Hommage 10 Marcel Duchamp
Museum des 20. 1965
Jahrhunderts. Vienna Coloured Metal

no less measured relationships of the later and most
recent work, to the sharply orientated angular figure
groups. More and more the architectonic space plan, as
it were, becomes sensitive, a structural fabric deriving
its proportions and outlines from the human form, while,
on the other hand, in a consistent evolution towards
cubes, squares and geometric section, the slenderly
rising, variously projecting or voluminously packed con­
figurations are utterly alienated, reduced and subjected
to autonomous laws. This last continuing phase in
Wotruba's creation, the ground for which was prepared
by a long series of small sculptures, has led on to the
architectural issue of the Marburg relief, a 33-metre wide
stone fa9ade in the new lecture-hall of the University,
and to the monumental, almost 3-metre high bronze for
an open-air exhibition in Amsterdam (and, incidently,
has at the same time inspired a series of fine, free draw­
ings and etchings).
Wotruba arrived at this point along a path which, in the
sculpture of our time must be fairly unique. His present
architectural space plan follows in the chastened
vehemence of the classifying order of other principles
than those of the methodical, solid-geometry measure­
ments of cubist sculpture and painting. Rather, a
stubborn commitment to the great heritage of sculpture
flows into a new creation in which the best traditions
and the contemporary canons of forms are brought to
self-evident unity. An unqualified and reasonable
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