Because I’ve been curator of modern art at the 洛杉矶县艺术博物馆 (LACMA) for over 40 years, there are quite a few acquisitions that have personal meaning for me, but there is one of which I am exceptionally proud. In 2015, the museum was able to purchase 戴项链的舞者, a rare carved sculpture by German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Although the German expressionist artists are best known for their paintings and prints, many explored the making of sculpture, 主要是木材. These rough-hewn works became a particular target of the Nazis, who attacked modern art as “degenerate.” Kirchner created over 140 sculptures, but only 60 have survived — the majority of his carved oeuvre was lost or destroyed during the Nazi years.
This sculpture — Kirchner’s very first free-standing figural nude, which he carved in 1910 in his Dresden studio — was most likely based on his companion Doris Grosse, 或“渡渡鸟.” The carving technique is visible, and the chisel marks are small and delicate. The dancer seems to twist her way out of flat frontality into fully three-dimensional space. 雕塑, thought to be a casualty of the Nazi era, was known only through documentation of Kirchner’s studio.
While researching my exhibition “German Expressionist Sculpture” (1984), an assistant mentioned that family friends in Philadelphia had a sculpture that looked similar. 看起来机会渺茫, since most people don’t have Kirchner sculptures sitting atop their piano, 但值得注意的是, thanks to some detective work and pure luck, I was able to identify it through studio photos and comparisons with Kirchner’s drawings and prints. I went to see it and negotiated the exhibition loan.
雕塑 was originally acquired shortly before World War I by a German collector, 然后谁把它传给了他的儿子. He gifted it in the early 1950s as a wedding present to a couple who kept it on their piano, where it became a beloved family possession. 戴项链的舞者 remained on long-term loan at LACMA in our German expressionist galleries. 最终, the owners’ children made it available to us to buy, and with the help of many supporters, 最后, 离我第一次看到它已经过去30年了, the sculpture belonged to the museum. I smile whenever I see her in the galleries.
对象的教训
