Grandmaster of the Alexander Order
One often hears of the "great Enlightened Oneswho, from century to century, entrust to each other the secrets ofthe mysteries and of spirituality. Such men of enlightenment can alsobe found among artists, who, from age to age, have had the privilegeto leave behind the finest paintings of men. Arno Breker is the lastin this celebrated line, which leads from Phidias and Praxiteles toRodin and Maillol. A spark from each of them lit his torch--hisbeacon, as Baudelaire would say, who called all great artistsbeacons, because they enlighten mankind and are a pledge of thedignity and promise of the future.
How can this be done? These men understood thatthe answer lay in the representation of that through which we exist:the human body.
It is the most perfect expression of nature, inwhose midst it was created; it is their master. If it may alsosometimes be their destroyer, still, through art it is possible forman to overcome his destiny. The human being remains the highestchallenge for the artist, for what seems the easiest to recreate, isactually the most difficult. Protogenes recognized the work ofApelles by the perfect way the latter had drawn a straightline.
I would like to say however, that the sculptor hasan advantage over the painter. The sculptor is able to imitate naturemore closely, because he is able to give volume to his work. We arethereby more receptive to the beauty and delight of a sculpture thanto that of a painting. Pygmalion embraced his statue of Venus: nolegend however--if it doesn't spring from the poet's imagination--isguaranteed the same fate as that which is reserved for a painting. Itfollows, consequently, that more can be embodied in a statue than inany other artistic medium.
Lukian of Samosate told us in his "Dream," inwhich he allowed the sculpture to speak, that "Phidias, Polyklet,Myron and Praxiteles had been praised and admired and that they werenow being worshipped alongside the gods. Was ever a greater respectbestowed upon artists than through words such as these? And for allthat it is a question concerning the sculptor. For it is plainly thesculptor, of equally high birth as Prometheus, who--after he hadformed the first human being--stole fire from the immortals in orderto give it to men.
This fire of life distinguishes the mediocreartist from the godlike one; it distinguishes a magnificent originalfrom a mere imitation or copy. It differentiates in minute detail theParthenon from the Madeleine church in Paris.
What is life? It is the soul. A torso, a facemodeled by Breker are not just remarkable reproductions of reality;they speak and vibrate with life. They are living, because they havesouls.
Breker's bust of Jean Cocteau was selected toadorn the chapel-tomb of Milly-la-Foret. The friends of this poetwill nowhere find his character traits, with all their spirit, alltheir fascination, better immortalized in bronze than here. Therewill also never be a more beautiful bust of Dali than the one whichBreker made of him. The most gifted painter of the century isperfectly represented in it with his devouring eyes and all of hisdemoniacal possession. He is at once conqueror, conquistador, andpicador in one--conquistador in all areas of art; picador, who withhis banderillas has punctured all the established norms.
I cannot conclude this apology of Arno Brekerwithout glorifying the man equally as much as the artist. I wouldlike to speak of the perfect tenderness of his friendship, the beautyof his face and of his glance--beauty which he alone has the power toexpress. Through his first wife, who was Greek, he has, so to speak,been personally joined with Greece, the homeland of beauty. It wasfrom Greece that he acquired the purity of his inspiration and where,in the vicinity of Rodin and Maillol, he learned technique. Perhapshe may yet decide, in order to crown his youthful four timestwenty-one years, to give us the group of Alexander and Hephaistos,for which my work, which is dedicated to the greatest genius inhistory, was the inspiration.
To the words of the sculptor, Lukian of Samosateadds another kind of oracle, meant for those who strive to fulfillit: "You will bring glory to your fatherland. Through his art ArnoBreker glorifies two countries, Germany and France, for, like all thegreat artists who have made their mark on this century, he reachedthe summit of his art in Paris.
And so, I am doubly pleased--as a friend of hisfatherland and as a Frenchman--to have written these lines in hishonor. I salute the sculptor in him, who already during his ownlifetime has established his place near the gods.
Translation by: Lynne NibbelinkCOPYRIGHT 1981 MARCO Edition, Paris/WEST-ART PUBLISHERS,P.O. Box 279, Clarence, New York 14031 U.S.A.