About the Artwork
In the early 1920s, simplification of the human figure became increasingly important to Georg Kolbe, partly inspired by his interest in Egyptian and archaic Greek art. For Assunta, he constructed the slender body of a nude woman from elongated and stylized forms that smoothly flow from one to the other. Devoid of details, self-contained, and monumental, the work conveys through its formal austerity the spiritual content of the assumption of the Virgin Mary.
During his career Kolbe frequently collaborated with architects. Assunta was originally conceived as part of the design for a mausoleum commissioned from Kolbe and architect Hans Poelzig by Dresden manufacturer Karl August Lingner. The sculpture was to be displayed in an oval room, open to the sky and decorated inside with reliefs of mourners in profile, which, if completed, would have further reinforced Assunta’s architectonic clarity. Eventually, the scale of the mausoleum was reduced, and Assunta was removed from its original design.
Assunta
1921
Georg Kolbe
1877-1947
German
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Bronze
Overall: 76 3/4 × 15 1/2 × 17 1/2 inches (194.9 × 39.4 × 44.5 cm) Including base: 77 1/2 × 30 5/8 × 30 5/8 inches (196.9 × 77.8 × 77.8 cm)
Sculpture
European Modern Art to 1970
City of Detroit Purchase
29.331
Public Domain
Markings
Signed, on base, behind left foot: G K
Provenance
(Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin, Germany);1929-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Heller, R. Apollo 99, p. 51 (ill. fig. 2).
Bulletin of the DIA 11, no. 5, p. 63.
German Painting and Sculpture. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1931, no. 108.
Haftman, W., A. Hentzen, and W.S. Lieberman. German Art of the 20th Century. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1957, no. 104.
Modern Sculpture, Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1950, pp. 24-25 (ill.).
Fifty Years of Modern Art: 1916-1966. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1966, no. 21 (ill.).
The Modern Art Society. Exh. cat., Contemporary Arts Center. Cincinnati, p. 47 (ill.).
Uhr, H. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1982, p. 132 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Georg Kolbe, Assunta, 1921, bronze. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 29.331.
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