Basic shapes

In Abstract figure, Oskar Schlemmer depicts the human figure in its most elemental form, posture and movements. The sculpture comprises a totality of geometric and organic basic shapes, such as spheres and cylinders and combinations thereof.

Profound abstraction

The sculpture stems from an optimistic vision of the future, which emerged among progressive artists and thinkers at the beginning of the 20th century. They sought to employ art, technology and science in a quest for a better world. The different art forms, each with its own elemental means, were intended to reach a profound abstraction, to thus arrive at the essence of the world of ‘seeing, feeling and thinking’.

Visual medium

Schlemmer was not only a painter and sculptor, he also designed theatre sets. In his most important work, DasTriadisches Ballett, he conceives the human body as a visual medium. He regards the dancers as ‘movements in space’ and designed abstract costumes and masks for them.