MONUMENTS TO LABOR

By PETER P. FECHN ER

Thc 1//llh',r i a u'dl·/.:1I0ll'lI G rllla .. If .tl1Jlor ...ho (,"IIC ""1 to the f:n,,1 inrllHI/rdifJll reill. (I /feitHI,jic e.J"pt'(NI;ou tu IIUJke c:.rcr"iu! Illtld;u UmOH!! illller·.-I"'t·o(;c1,.':/)C8. He hus HiIlC~ bee.. "·"rl.·i,,y i,. Shany/w'o:.

SIl\CE Illan pushed t.ho first plow, thetheme of work has appeared in art.~umel'Ous prehi. toric rO<'k drl,\,wingflprov" to liS early man's interest in

depicting human labor. The a{lme in thisfield of art is represented by the creat.ions ofthe ancient I';gyptian:i of tho Old Kingdom.The mot,if of work occlirs in aitouishing \'arietyin freflco, rf'lil'f, ami sl:ulpture in the rOIUld.•'ometillle t1l('y depict an entire process ofwork, cO\'ering the walli of burial cha.rnberll;!!Ometimes they amaze u. by the artistic per·fcction of the indh'idllal figurcs, for instance,lhe flLIUOIiS ioltatlle of til" "Seated Scribe"dating from :?700 B.C.

The art of a.ncient Grcec'e and Il.:>lll~ doesnot show" much in the way uf scc:ula.r labor:it wa' interested ehiel1y in heroic and mytho­logical llubjects. Tho sculptures mO!lt familiart.o us arc idealized human beings Imd deitiescorresponding to t.hl.l ltrtiitic ideal of their'ime, which iolought for (l:rfection in the b:llLUtyof mimi ILnu body.

III Chl'istia:t art, no p:t.iII ter or w-::ulptor pMsedby th:! hLbor of til· craft 'm",n with which heWaS fa.miliar. It ot.:"ur" in mo.>t portrayals ofUte life of C:.rist. Conmd Witz, .Hieronimu!illJ.><:h, l>.lr0r, a. d G~ilflewald, chose theirJ:U leis fwm the l1ro.ft.iID·Jn a.mong whom theylived a tel h:t.d their root.. The great G;,rmauwoo:.! soulptor Tilmann l1.iem.lIlschneider por·tl·...yed craftsmen w:len ho ca.n"od his Apo!ltles,t.ad tho S:l.m) spirilJ is m!Lllife"t in the self·p::Jrtra.it of M'.Liter Pilgram (FIG. 1). That the::ltanema'lon Pilgram w....~ an "rtist is provedby the buld oomp;Hition of this high relief illWilich, ill spite of the one·sided llmpIULSi:i,nothing distnrb~ th !la,rmony of tile whole.Tile opJuing willdu.v cunveys an impression of8in'.:;) a'td phL'Iticity. The fresh r",alislD ex­pr sed in tho hand with the compasses, in thetr atm~nt of th:: ~·\rm:'nt, 0.11 the wa.," np toth!) emblem of hill tra'lfl, co:nbincd with theslight ('Xl),g~Jrl\tion in the execution of thespiritua.li7.ed face, ma.ke this sculpture a typicalartist ic crt>atio 11 of it~ ti III e.

[n t.he Inrio::! extonrlillg from thc close oftbo Middle A~.~s O\'ilr thl' H,~n~i'so.nce, thepathos.imbued b3.roquc and frivoioull rococost;.vles, the motif of w.)rk w.\; pra-::ti aHy for­gotteu in art.

The nineteenth century formod 1\ new idealof work and the worker. Thc Jmpl'Cs;lionist,';were the first to discover the overpoweringbeauty of a blast furnace or a rolling mill; butthey saw them merely in the light of color,where thl' worker himself was only part of the!letting. With the progress of mechanical work,lIew social pl'Oblemli appeared which, Iit,rangelyenough, had little effect upon painting butfound new, strong expression in lit,ernlurc andsculptnrn. The worker WlLS raised from hisanonymity and made the subjf'ct of lIew ar·ti"ticforms of expression. The Be!1o!iau Cunstl1l1t.i1lMeunier is probably the strollgest r<,prescnta·tive of this lIeW trend in art, and he lllll\" wellbe regarded ali the precnrsor of moder;. por.traYlLLs of workers in plastic art. With thesame powllrful realism used by his contemporaryZula in his lIovels, Meuni£'r port"ltyed theBJgian coal miner, yet stili cxpre.·sing thatwhich was typical, without eml.>elJishing ac­cessorie:'l. It is not lL coincidence that it wasBelgium whero the first exprcssi\'c statucs ofworkers were created, lLS t.his was the firstcountry on tho Continent in which the l<ocialque:lt.ion Illade its appearance ill political life,more than in France or Germanv .

.From the B~lgian Meunier it i:; II "traightpath to the (JJrnHLn Fritz KocHe. Hill "Miner,"which he created in 11:127, is a weH·knownsta.tue I'tl'\'lIdjng in front of the :\lItional Gal1eryin .B rUn. One of his most recent works, the"har Raftswan" (FIr.. 3), is on the same higha.rtistic plane. It reveals the development; ofKoellc's perilonality which is exprl'ssed inspiritual monumentality combined with out.­ward austerity of form.

The exp .riencc of wltr and rcyolutioll broughtan cuti.rcly different attitude of the artisttoward the theme of work llnd the wOl'ker,In the trenches he saw the worker as a soldierl~nd comrl\de, in the following pcriod of eco­nomic di::ltress he saw him a' a starving pro­letarian. It walil these two IIlltin illlpredsionl'which made thelDseh'cs felt in the port,rnylll ofworkers in art.

With the coming into powl;lr of the newregime in O,mulllly in 1\)33, the artist WliS

s"t great new tasks in the representlltion ofwork. Many sculptllral works hayc since statedthrough the medium of art that the worker is

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SCULPTCR.\L ART

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It is nu longer possible to imagille sculpture,painting, llmlliteratul'e wit.hollt t.ho mot,its ofwork and the worker: n~ II nr'w tht>JJlc, t,heyhlL\"(' cllric:hed our cult untl (:I'll lind will continueto do 80. No artist. least of nil tho sclliptor,cun paSo.. by these gloriollsly tempcmd bodiesand thet!e faet"s wit,h the proud expreStlion ofmcn whu ha\'c beeOIll(, oomu·iolls of their vallieand their place within their (leuplt>, withoutfeeling the desire to portray these mell uf labor.

ClU!e of the "File barpener" hy .Ernst KUlll.t(.FIG. i), Here the tool has bt\{'n /oIc,'ulptured ill!:!uch a way al) to form an or~allic part in 010

treatment of the n'st of the figure,Anothcl' great field was opened lip t,1) the

sculptural portrayal of lnhor by tb(' \'llst build.ing prugram in German)' Ix>fore the vrt'scnt war.Architect and liCulptor co.operated in thecreation of hIIge architt>Ct ural sculptllrt's rnrelyto be found e1llewhere in the modern history ofart. The monumcntal nrohitcct llI·t· l.1edicstedto work required monumental Sl·,t1pture onappropriate themct!, Sculptural works appearedon the outer walls of the new Labor Bureaul,ill tbe hallt! and entrances of large factories,and in the recreation grounds of industrialplants. They were created in bronze. lltolle,and ceramics. As verticals, they dTectivelyrelieve large waU surfaces, ur llS corner tlCul\,­tures they join up theso surfaccll, A finet'xample uf the latter is Carl Stock'i! massiveworker's figure placed on the l'ornN \'crti(:al ofa lIew factory building WIO. li).

Heliefs, both hil(h llnd low. are 8n bjoot toentirely different Inwll of plastic art. Tba.twhich the sculpture in the round tries to avoidcan be fulfilled by the relief, IlIlIuel\'. to narrateIL fH·ot·CSS and t.o gi\'e it decorat.iv~ ("xprel,;sion.Two beautiful examplcl) uf tltis Ilre ArturHoffmann's "Crucible St 01 ('astin~" IFtl. 8)and Karl Albiker's relief for tht' ni~lrict Com­mand Offir'e of t,be Air ~"orce in Vn~:;den (FH:. Y) .T1. is among the 1><'st works of modern relicfS('ulptllre and ideally fulfilllS all t he demands weare cntit,led to make upon I\. relief. The slIrfacehM been divided up in u ntU.'iterly manner bythe severe, clear composition. All mnssing ofoVf'!'lapping figurt's has been Il\'oideel, resultingill a tin<' flowing ornaml'ntatioll. III dynamicJl1/l.jesty t.he ~vt'n fignres pass aero!'!!:! the frieze,SYnl holizing t hc air ann ami till' fo .."('s of arms.

}{O~""'IDIENTS TO L~BOR

:1 r prcSt'nt.ath-c of the nat,ion on an equalfooting wit,h other groups of the population.Thi!' is how we must IlnderstlLlId the warmt>morilll of JOl'cf Enscling (FIG. 2), whu choseII worker ll~ tlte subject for his monument10 the fall<'n. III him ht' gives expre:;siqn tothe mourning OH"r the fallen brother worker,alld the arti ·t"s d('('p ft'Cling make his monument('ulIvincing il} what it wi..bcs to say.

()llI' of tho llculptor's mOHt, difficult problemsil' t hat of eomposing Q sculptural group, as itis t·t<IWllt ial in s('ulpture to create bodies asdo~ I'la..'oItil' ullits. III the portrayal of groupe>till' dangt'r is inherent that !leveral individualI>"die'''' 1.10 uut aehieve tht> n(.'c.t"888J'Y merging ofl'hapt· IIncl lille iloilO hence fail to grow into anartilStic lInit. III his "Brothers in Work"(FIl:. "). Puul Oesten succeeded ill achieving ane'xecpt iOllally guotl solution to this difficultproblem. The composition of thill group alonei,; ('llUugh to show Oesten's great mae>tcry. Thet hrt'(· torsos merge into one great, hannoniolllsr'xl'resl'ioll of form; while the flowing lines oft Ite leJ:8, by means of skillfully balanced over­lappillg of tlte (·mpty spaces. bindt! these latterill tllrn into a ullity. Although for reatlOns ofellmpO/,ilion the injuTftl man's bead onlyliJ.!hlly touches the cup of his comrade, the",M:<'Illlor till ha.~ an impre.asion of tlte funct.ionflf t<lIpport; nor docs the eonsciollflly close('Ollt:\('t betwt'ClI the hanging leg ano the knee..! lilt' l'('Colld cumrade interfere with the func­t inn of carc·ful stepping, The wonderful in·I rill~il' truthfulness radiated by this group ofwurker,; muk(,,-8 all t>xplanatory accC:,lSOrieB super­t1UOUII: only th.e unprett"ntious working cap ofI h(' man 011 I he riJl:ht. charncterizt>!4 l.ht· wholeJ.!WUfJ alii workerl'l. Sufff"ring. sympathy. andrt'llllim'ss t·(I hdl" form the l'piritual eon tonI. ofI hill !'lCulpturf".

LalJort."r,; at work aI'£' a subjE'ct rardy found in",'ulpturf' in the round. owing to the sculptor'/ldll,;,.a,,,le for illust.rat.ive work. For this wIlSontWlllptorli IItillnll,r (Iort ray tit workcr lit rest,his work l:hl\ract(-rized by hill tool. Tho 1.11.,1,(I! portrll.rillg the workc'r wit.h hill tool. whichto the I"ymlln set'ms fraught with no particularprolJlNn, oft<,n rr'pres('nts a sovere test of theart illt's a hilit v. Thus. for instaJlc(-, in the CSIlC

(If Olto Winkler'" .. Bla"t :Furnace Worker"(Flf •. li), a tine. mature work almo 1. bordering(.11 ('xpn'Sllionisrn ill its lltyle. the problem haslIot lJol'n solved as suceC:'ssfully by t.he utterlylIaturali:ltic treat.mcnt uf tl\{' tool as in Ole

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