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on her 85th birthday.
With a selection of recent and older works, we congratulate Wanda Pratschke, who celebrated her 85th birthday on February 25 with unbroken creative power. The artist is more present in public spaces in and around Frankfurt than almost any other sculptor and is valued by many collectors.
Undefeated 2010 Bronze 25x65x25cm Edition 8+2
Queen 2020 bronze/oil paint 25x16x16cm edition of 10+2
WANDA PRATSCHKE
More recent works include the Queen Homage to Lucian Freud More recent works include the Queen Homage to Lucian Freud (2023, bronze, 120 x 75 x 75 cm), which does not refer to the British Queen Elizabeth II in the title, because everyone would see "that it is the Queen, you don't have to write that underneath", as Pratsche recently made clear in an interview with the Journal Frankfurt. Her reference is the portrait that the painter Lucian Freud made of the then 75-year-old Queen in 2001. Pratschke transferred the expressive application of paint from the painting to the plaster form, which she brought to its final form in accordance with her sculptural practice through repeated application and repeated chipping in a long process. The axe is, so to speak, the brush with which Wanda Pratschke approached the portrait. After the bronze casting, the head was painted in royal cobalt blue.
the making of...
Anja 1977/2023 Bronze 155x30x30cm Edition 4+1
ANYA
It was only during the pandemic that the artist completed the work she had already created in 1977. Anja It was only during the pandemic that the artist cast Anja, a work she had already created in 1977. Cast in 1977, pratschke created it when she was in her first semester at the Städelschule studying under Willi Schmidt. Standing in classical contrapposto, the work radiates a calm presence. At 155 cm high, it is the ideal small sculpture for close observation.
THE INVINCIBLE
For the outdoor area The invincible For the outdoor space, we recommend Die Unbesiegbare (2021/2022, bronze, 185 x 105 x 70 cm), not in the size that has been on display in the public space on Adorno Square at Frankfurt's Goethe University since 2022, but in a medium format of 65 x 35 x 25 cm. The female figure embodies the mixture of composure, pride and will to win that is so typical of her creator.
Drawing graphite 20x30cm
STÄDELSCHULE
After working as a stage designer, Wanda Pratschke (*1939 in Berlin) trained at the Städelschule under Johann Georg Geyger (painting) and sculpture under Willi Schmidt. She took part in the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts under Prof. Markus Lüpertz and Wolf Vostell.
Relief III 2022 Bronze 20x28x7 Edition 10+2
Dream II 2019 Bronze 83x83x65cm Edition of 6
Illustration: Museum Hofheim, catalog 2019