(Vienna 1907–1975)
“Stehende Figur” (standing figure with raised arms), 1958, bronze, golden brown patina, monogrammed FW, height 82.5 cm

Jürg Janett, Fritz Wotruba, Werkverzeichnis, Skulptur, Reliefs, Bühnen - Architekturmodelle, Erker - Verlag St. Gallen, 2002, p. 212, 213 – there: the cast book lists 12 casts numbered with Arabic numerals and one cast inscribed with EA and numbered 0/I. 2 additional examples inscribed with EA and with Roman numerals are known.

One bronze illustrated:
Fritz Wotruba, Humanität aus Stein, von Friedrich Heer, Edition du Griffon, Neuchatel, Switzerland, 1961, p. 62 (full-page ill.), as well as on the cover; Wotruba, Figur als Widerstand, Bilder und Schriften zu Leben und Werk, Verlag der Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1977, p. 105 (full-page ill. work on the right side);
Fritz Wotruba, Erker Verlag, St. Gallen 1992, p. 75 (full-page ill.)

Exhibited:
Wotruba, Figur als Widerstand, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien und der Vereinigung bildender Künstler Wiener Secession, 1977, exhibition cat., Verlag der Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1977, ill.74; Fritz Wotruba, Retrospektive, Kunsthaus Zug, 1992; Zeitlos, Das Menschen Bild in der Skulptur und Zeichnung Fritz Wotrubas, Eine Retrospektive, Ausstellung des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Harrach, Vienna 1995-listeds under cat. no. 46

Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna

... the dimensions of this cast bronze correspond to other cast bronzes of this figure. The manner in which the surface has been handled (chiselling and patina) is definitely by Fritz Wotruba’s hand. It is one of a series of casts made by Wotruba. This sculpture is listed in the Wotruba catalogue raisonné (p. 212, cat. rais. no. 213).
Vienna 15.10.2013 Sincerely
E. Lanzenberger

(Engelbert Lanzenberger was Fritz Wotruba’s longtime assistant) - from a letter to the current owner

Art and Society
A contribution to the discussion - from the catalogue: “Figur als Widerstand” [Figure as Resistance]

Under different circumstances, the topics of autonomous art and constructed bodies would have, in different times, just been a question handled by those closely connected to them, namely, artists and architects. Today and at this point, however, this topic is growing into a monster; now, it is not just a question of artistic and aesthetic experience and perspective – rather, it has developed into a matter of political, social, and ultimately artistic and cultural need.
But here we want to establish that directed art cannot have cultural value: only art that follows its own laws can achieve this. In any case, independence is the prerequisite for an artwork to be created.
We are in the midst of a conflict between two ways of viewing the world, and a third power, technology, and it might be that this third power will be the only, absolute winner.
Fritz Wotruba