Die eule (The owl) 1921

Seated in front of a candlestick, a cloaked figure – their brow furrowed with lines – gazes at the viewer with a wide-eyed stare. They are surrounded by different types of birds, none of which resemble owls, so this enigmatic figure may be intended by the artist as a personification of the ‘owl’ of the work’s title.

Gerhard Marcks’s Die eule (The owl) comes from a portfolio of woodcuts, etchings and lithographs produced by prominent teachers from the Bauhaus, a progressive school of art, design and applied art in Weimar, Germany (active 1919–33). A founding member of the Bauhaus teaching staff, Marcks sought clarity of form and a return to fundamental values in art. To this end, he adopted a restrained yet expressive visual language that distanced him from the emotional excesses of Expressionism. The stylisation of human and animal elements in this work is balanced by the rhythmical interplay of the black and white geometric forms. Traditionally associated with wisdom, vigilance and nocturnal solitude, the owl of the title may also reflect the introspective mood of the early Weimar Republic, a period marked by uncertainty and reflection.