Rudolf Belling

Rudolf Belling initially made a commercial apprenticeship before he went to the School of Applied Arts. An autodidact, he was employed in 1911 at the Art School in Charlottenburg / Berlin, despite no formal training at the time. His art style was at first Cubist-Expressionist in sculpture, but he was then influenced by futuristic and constructivist ideas. In his work “Dreiklang” (Triad) from 1919, Belling brought German sculpture into line with the international avant-garde. Contrary to the widely accepted view, he has always denied Archipenko’s alleged influence on his work. He was later influenced by the Bauhaus Movement. Still later he returned to stylized natural forms and created numerous portraits.

In 1926 he created the radiator mascot for the car company “Horch”, which was never produced as the company was renamed “Audi”. In 1933 he was defamed by the Germans as a “degenerate” and, in 1944, his studio with a large part of his works was destroyed in an air raid. In 1935 he immigrated to New York, and in 1937 he went to Turkey to work at the Art Academy, accepting a post as a lecturer at Istanbul University in 1951. Belling also was known for his work as an architect. In 1966 he returned to Germany and set up a studio in Krailling near München. Shortly before his death he created a Peace Memorial for the 1972 Olympic Games.

The bronze sculpture The Boxer is a portrait statuette of heavy-weight champion Max Schmeling. The 54.5 cm high figure (with its marble base 64 cm) dates from 1929. Copies can be found, for instance, in the Berlin National Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.