Elegance

In Elegance, Heinz Warneke captures the proud nature of the domestic cat. The highly polished surface of the sculpture accentuates the solid yet graceful posture of the alert feline. The simple, abstract rendering is characteristic of the artist's direct carving technique, an attribute of much of his work produced in Paris between 1927 and 1932. The regal and stylized quality reflects Warneke's interest in ancient Egyptian sculpture, of which he commented, "It satisfies my desire for a brief strong statement—yet free from any coarseness of treatment. Each line and form is sensitively felt without the slightest loss of definiteness" (Heinz Warneke, quoted in Parnassus, February 1941).