Georg Kolbe

The Fountain
Georg Kolbe Museum

Critical Perspectives on a Sculptural Masterpiece

Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) was one of the most eminent sculptors of the first half of the twentieth century. His idealized nudes reflect his probing engagement with the problem of how to represent modern man. Many of his sculptures were inspired by the vitality of expressionist dance. Kolbe was an active member of various Secession clubs and worked in dialogue with artists including Max Beckmann, Renée Sintenis, Ernst Barlach, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

The point of departure for the publication project The Fountain, which is released in the summer of 2025 on occasion of the George Kolbe Museum’ seventy-fifth anniversary, is the Fountain of Dancers (1922), which stands in the museum’s sculpture garden. The book’s objective is to subject the stereotypes implicit in the fountain figures to critical interrogation with a view to histories of racism and misogyny as well as the anti-Semitic history of the fountain as a Nazi looted art object. An illustrated chronology retraces the object’s history and provenance; an art-historical essay by Carolin Jahn and Elisa Tamaschke (curator, Georg Kolbe Museum) provides the scholarly foundation. The volume is rounded out by the perspectives of writers and writing artists like Kirsty Bell, Max Czollek, Julia Grosse, Kasia Fudakowski, David Hartt, Markues, and Jimmy Robert.