Martin und Brigitte Matschinsky-Denninghoff
1921 - 2020
Lynkeus. 1977.
Brass and zinc, on a wooden plinth.
Unique object. Height without plinth: 90 cm (35.4 in). Wooden plinth: 2,5 x 49,7 cm (0,9 x 19,5 x 25,9 in).

• Unique object.
• Lynkeus: a tribute to the watchman in Goethe's “Faust II.”
• Line and structure - in the dynamic expression of the artist couple's characteristic welded metal wires.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Spain (acquired directly from the artists).
Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (2009 Ketterer Kunst, acquired from the above, since then in family ownership).

EXHIBITION: Matschinsky-Denninghoff – Neue Arbeiten, Galerie Schüler, Berlin, 1979.
Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Galerie Marianne Hennemann, Bonn, 1980.
Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Galerie Rothe, Heidelberg, 1980.
Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Galerie von Laar, Munich, 1981.
Vingt Ans de Prix Bourdelle, Musée Bourdelle, Paris, 1981, cat. no. 8.
Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Skulpturen und Zeichnungen 1955-1985, Akademie der Künste, Berlin/Saarland-Museum, Saarbrücken/Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 1985, cat. no. 47.
Interferences = Art from West Berlin 1960-1990, Museum of Foreign Art, Riga 1990.

LITERATURE: Georg W. Költzsch (ed.), Matschinsky-Denninghoff. Monograph and catalogue raisonné of sculptures, Cologne 1992, CR no. 374 with illustration and plate 54.
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Manfred de la Motte (ed.), Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Dokumentation 26, Galerie Hennemann, Bonn 1980 (with ill.).
Ketterer Kunst, Munich, 349th Auction of Post-1945 and Contemporary Art, April 29, 2009, Lot 909 (with ill.).

"‘Lynkeus’, named after the tower keeper in ‘Faust II’ in homage to Goethe, brings out the tendency toward the grotesque inherent in such a representation of the body in its masked absence.
Johannes Langner. Wandel und Entfaltung - Zum plastischen Werk von Matschinsky-Denninghoff. In: G.W. Költzsch 1992, p. 107.

Brigitte and Martin Matschinsky-Denninghoff have been working together since 1955—the year they married —marking the beginning of an extremely successful creative partnership. Their joint signature, Matschinsky-Denninghoff, symbolizes what sets this artist couple apart from others: they do not work side by side, but rather together. They design and create together, each of their individual talents flowing into every one of their works and blending seamlessly into a common whole. Although the balance of artistic contributions varies from work to work, they are evenly distributed across their sculptural oeuvre as a whole. “Our collaboration began in 1955. It wasn't us who started it; it just began. It wasn't a decision, but rather a gradual, natural process that became denser, more intense, more productive, and more conscious over the years, so that very soon ‘the artistic contribution’ could no longer be separated.” (Brigitte and Martin Matschinsky-Denninghoff, report, in: Georg W. Költzsch (ed.), Matschinsky-Denninghoff, monograph and catalogue raisonné of sculptures, Cologne 1992, p. 18).
The couple Matschinsky-Denninghoff works with line and structure, not with volume. Their sculptures, made of metal rods, tubes, or sheets, rise in flowing, partly curved, partly open bands, often reminiscent of organic forms and always expressing a powerful growth driven by an invisible force.
In addition to their joint sculptural work, the artist couple continues to pursue individual graphic and painterly creations in which their respective impulses find expression. These works combine compositional, powerful austerity with the delicate lightness that also characterizes their sculptural work.

In good condition. With isolated tiny traces of oxidation. Veneered wooden plinth with small veneer chips and faint scratch marks.