"Hommage to Mozart", Markus Lüpertz
3rd art project Salzburg Walk of Modern Art: Markus Lüpertz, "Hommage to Mozart" (2005) at Ursulinenplatz, in front of St. Mark's Church
Markus Lüpertz has created a very personal hommage to Mozart. His "Mozart" is neither a historical portrait nor a simple allegory. In the form of a 2.95 metre-high bronze figure, Lüpertz's work combines a naked female torso and a bust of the composer with the characteristic pigtail, posed in classical counterpoise confronting St. Mark's Church as a sculptural opposite. Evoking the genius and inward discord that marked Mozart's life and work, the artist leaves his "Mozart" transfused with an ambivalence of male and female, complete and fragmentary.
Art critic Peter Iden points out, that Lüpertz's sculpture is to be seen as reflecting Mozart's music and its impact rather than Mozart as a person. In this connection he refers to "the perils of free expression that art in any form represents and the threats it is subjected to".
