10Krieger I

Toward the end of the war and shortly thereafter, Jeanne Mammen produced another series of sculptures from plaster or clay. The reason might have been her inability to obtain paints, but sculpture gave her the chance to experiment with three dimensions. What she produced had a clear influence on her later works. With ”Krieger I” (Warrior I) Mammen is playing with aspects of mass and hollowness. The head is hollow and the surface is worked to a smooth finish, except for the cap of the skull. Only the left side of the skull, up to the hairline, has been worked over, bearing a recessed eye and ends at the front with the nose. In contrast, Mammen only formed the back side of the right half of the skull. Although there are gaps between the segments, the head seems compact and balanced. The sculpture opens and closes as one views it from different angles.