‘Franz Messerschmidt (1736 – 1783) was a German-Austrian sculptor most famous for his “character heads”, a collection of busts with faces contorted in extreme facial expressions.’
- Wikipedia
Messerschmidt sculptures, 1700s
If you like this, check out:
Banksy
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Project Battlefields
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Pin-Up Girls Before & After, 1950s
Anatomy of a Mermaid
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Vintage Ad Sexism
Ancient Roman Sprintiae
Miniature Hell in 3D, 1860s
Tudor Bestiary, 1520
Tudor Pattern Book, 1520
Child Slave 'Cartes de Visites', 1863
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Mummified Barbies
Motherlands by Gerry Judah
Polish Cold War Neon
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"A Natural History" by Noah Doely
Original 'Charlotte's Web' Illustrations, 1952
Saw those at Belvedere in Wien
Looks like he was one of the world’s first genius cartoonists. Way ahead of his time, unfortunately!
I want to touch them.
Love this work ……..
Clearly, these works do not escape into reality or the aesthetic realm, but remain finely worked surfaces firmly set in the psychological.
I can totally relate to his work and see similarities in my own work.
Wow, can you imagine having one of those busts glowering at you from your mantle? It would be like your own personal gargoyle.
There’s a book, The Grimace, by Nicolas Salaman, which is a fictionalized account of Messerschmidt’s life and descent into barking madness. Don’t know if it’s still in print but I enjoyed it enough to read it twice.
Dear retronauts,
I would like to know if I could use one of your pictures of the Messerschmidt-Sculptures (in black and white) for an academic publication.
Kindly
A. Opitz