Edition – "Ernstes Spiel: Vergleichen (Otto Freundlich)"

The sculpture "Kopflose (nach Otto Freundlich)" [Headless, after Otto Freundlich] (2022) is part of Michael Müller’s group of works "Am Abgrund der Bilder" [At the Abyss of Images]. The basis for this sculpture was the plaster figure "Großer Kopf" [Large Head] created in 1912 by the progressive Jewish sculptor Otto Freundlich. This figure was confiscated by the National Socialists as ‘degenerate’ and shown in German-speaking countries as part of the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition tour. As it was also depicted on the cover of the accompanying catalogue, it became one of the best-known works of what the National Socialists called degenerate and, in their eyes, inferior art. The artwork was destroyed during transport from one exhibition venue to the next. Historical photos show that it was replaced by a falsified replica during the exhibition, in which the characteristics of the supposed ‘degeneracy’ were accentuated. This replica has not survived either.
The edition for volume 4.1 of the catalogue raisonné shows various photographic reproductions of the three versions of the sculpture "Großer Kopf" side by side: the work by Otto Freundlich, the falsified replica by the Nazis and Müller’s bronze sculpture "Kopflose (nach Otto Freundlich)". The size of the photographs depends on the size of the respective image file available. While Michael Müller’s sculpture could be professionally photographed, the depiction of Freundlich’s original is based on a historical photograph, and the Nazi replica was copied and reproduced from a newspaper article of the time, the only surviving image.