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brought together a whole series of paintings and sculptural works by well-known GDR artists, including
Mattheuer's Step of the Century. A journalist judges: “The symbol of the exhibition, is a single bronze sculpture. Richly placed on the threshold between the two rooms, Wolfgang Mattheuer's Step of
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Wolfgang
Mattheuer's work includes paintings, works on paper, prints and, since 1970, sculptures and objects. The majority of his pictures are so-called recreational pictures and include still lifes, portraits and landscapes. The so-called problem images gained greater importance: In them, Mattheuer
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house, Mattheuer works on the sculptural realization of the figure, which was planned from the beginning. In 1984, the 2.5 m (8.2 ft) tall plaster model was completed - casts in iron and bronze followed and finally a 5 m (16 ft) tall example, which is now in the
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In
October 2017, the city council of Reichenbach in Vogtland decided to purchase the last unsold example (bronze, unpainted) and put it up publicly. The purchase price was €180,000 and was largely financed through donations. The installation took place in November 2020.
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and the collector Peter Ludwig each commissioned a bronze casting. The audience reacted with astonishment and a lot of sympathy to the work shown. The response was even greater a few years later when a bronze cast of the Step of the
Century was shown at the Xth and last
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of the House of
History Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany. At the Bonn and Leipzig locations, 2.5 m (8.2 ft) tall bronze casts mark the entrance to the foundation's exhibition halls. At the end of the 1990s, Hermann Schäfer, then director of the
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Mattheuer said about his sculpture: "This nightmare figure, as the embodiment of absurdity, is 'that conflict between the longing mind and the disappointing world', it is '... homesickness for unity, this fragmented universe, and the contradiction that connects both'
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takes up mythological, biblical, contemporary and metaphorical motifs, combines them, expands their context and uses these images to create astute, sometimes cynical comments on current events. Well-known examples of this are his pictures of the fratricide of
180:(1981), this ominous figure appears for the first time in the painting's work: the body appears squat and deformed, the head is tucked in behind the torn chest and can hardly be seen. It consists only of the extremities - one arm, stretched out in the
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265:) and which all too often erupts into aggression and destructiveness, as a centrifugal force that tears the individual apart. No attempt at self-discovery is successful anymore." Eduard Beaucamp, long-time feature writer for
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A bare leg, reaching wide. A boot leg, a black arm with a healing gesture shooting from the disembodied middle and a fist on the raised second arm turn four extremities into a racing figure. What is that? Helpless rage?
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in Bonn, won
Mattheuer over to the idea of making a 5 m (16 ft) tall bronze cast of the Step of the Century. The idea of setting it up in front of the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum building in
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The catalog raisonné of sculptures and objects includes two differently painted iron casts and four bronze casts. Of these, three are painted differently and one is unpainted. Their locations are:
257:. The figure was chosen as the most important work of art in the exhibition, especially because a political discourse was still conducted as an alternative through visual art and literature.
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artists in particular, writes: "This paradoxical metaphor of the century, an aggressive, fleeing end-time figure who has lost his body and his 'center' is a mocking, bitter
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acquired the work from
Wolfgang Mattheuer's estate. For some time it was placed in the courtyard of the House of Brandenburg-Prussian History in Potsdam
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In the 1980s, Mattheuer was to develop what, in retrospect, was the most significant parable for his entire work, his own mythological figure – the
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Century step, iron cast painted in the inner courtyard of the
Berliner Volksbank headquarters (QVB), Bundesallee 206, Berlin
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Peter
Romanus (1997). "Ostwind. FĂĽnf deutsche Maler aus der Sammlung Grundkreditbank". In Dieter Brusberg (ed.).
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The same sculpture in its former location, the courtyard of the carriage stable (Kutschpferdestall) in
Potsdam
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Moritzburg Foundation – Art Museum of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, Halle an der Saale (bronze, painted)
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Eduard Beaucamp (2017). "Wolfgang Mattheuer. Bilder als Botschaft". In Stefanie Michels (ed.).
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could not be realized due to lack of space. The plan to install the sculpture in front of the
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Iron cast at the old location in front of the GrundkreditBank (now Berliner Volksbank) in
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In 1985 the painted plaster version was publicly exhibited for the first time at the
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in 1984. It is considered one of the most important works of art in the
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The message of the Step of the Century was also recognized in the then
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figures, those fleeing and falling, one of his best-known pictures is
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Wolfgang Mattheuer. Bilder als Botschaft. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde
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652:""Jahrhundertschritt" wird fest verankert auf dem Solbrigplatz"
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Andrea Hildenstock (1988-09-13). "Symbolik und Junge Wilde".
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Wolfgang Mattheuer (1997). Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt (ed.).
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Wolfgang Mattheuer (2002). Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt (ed.).
493:(in German). Leipzig: Edition Galerie Schwind. p. 249.
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the Century from 1984 creates the leap from east to west."
580:(in German). Leipzig: Edition Galerie Schwind. p. 19.
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626:""Jahrhundertschritt": GrĂĽnes Licht fĂĽr Plastik-Ankauf"
608:"Was steckt hinter dem "Jahrhundertschritt" in Bonn?"
518:(in German). Faber und Faber Verlag. pp. 84–85.
436:"Wolfgang Mattheuer, Hinter den sieben Bergen (1973)"
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417:(Haus der brandenburgisch-preuĂźischen Geschichte)
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244:Art Exhibition). The State Gallery Moritzburg in
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286:Zeitvergleich '88 - 13 Painters from the GDR'
192:, 1982). Mattheuer writes about this figure:
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464:(in German). Berlin. pp. 151–156.
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541:"Das zerrissene Jahrhundert"
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411:founder and art patron
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407:In 2012,
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267:Die Zeit
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119:) is a
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423:Notes
246:Halle
199:Chaos
520:ISBN
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476:link
354:Bonn
307:Bonn
111:(in
107:The
57:1984
54:Year
409:SAP
305:in
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