1910–1938: Ernst Barlach. The Silence of Suffering.

Category: Art History / Expressionism / Sculpture / Graphics
Reading Time: 7 min

I. Introduction: The Sculptor of the Soul

Ernst Barlach (1870–1938) was a central figure in German Expressionism, distinguished by his deeply spiritual and existential works. Unlike many contemporaries who focused on color and psychic excitation, Barlach found his expression in the weight and silence of form.

His sculptures, often crafted from wood or bronze, depict figures draped in heavy, flowing robes. These shrouds serve not as decoration but as a cage and shield for man’s internal, spiritual drama. Barlach did not create portraits of reality but archetypes of human fate: beggar, mother, monk, prophet.

II. Encountering Primitivism: The Genesis of Form

A decisive turn in Barlach’s work was marked by his journey to Russia in 1906. The encounter with the elemental, often suffering way of life of Russian peasants and beggars, wrapped in simple, heavy coats, profoundly impressed him.

He realized that the reduction of form to the essential amplified the emotional and universal message. This Primitivism of form, combined with the expressive power of the woodcut, became his trademark. The heavy, monolithic volumes of his figures, who often communicate only through the movement of their hands or the tilt of a head, radiate a monumental, quiet despair.

“The man in the fields – his figure is not a form, but a circumstance.”

— Ernst Barlach (Diary Entry)

III. The Floating One: The Testimony of War

Barlach’s most famous and poignant work is The Floating One (Güstrow Memorial, 1927). This bronze sculpture, depicting an angel seemingly sleeping or resting, wrapped in a cloak, became a war memorial.

The angel, floating face down, is not a sign of victory but an indictment of pain. The features of the angel are those of the artist himself, making the work a personal testament to suffering. Under the Nazi regime, the work was defamed as “degenerate art” and melted down in 1937, underscoring Barlach’s role as a conscientious critic of contemporary history.

IV. The Word and the Figure: Barlach as Poet

Barlach was not only a sculptor but also a significant dramatic poet. His plays (such as The Poor Cousin) mirror the existential distress found in his sculptures.

The characters in his plays often seek spiritual liberation in a material world. This interplay between the written word and the rigid, yet emotionally charged sculpture deepens the message of his art: the human figure is a vessel for an endless inner conversation between the soul and fate.

V. Conclusion: Monument of Interiority

Ernst Barlach remains the master of the spiritualized form. His art is a silent yet powerful monument to interiority, posing the universal questions of suffering, death, and hope without melodrama. He forced the viewer to look beyond the visible surface of the body and recognize the lonely dignity of the human soul, even when shrouded in cloak and darkness.