Here are four of Ernst Barlach's nine Listeners, an enigmatic series of 110 cm figures carved in oak 1930-1935. I greatly admire Barlach, who was born in 1870 near Hamburg. His direct figure carving produces, I once wrote, a 'loving, but lonely, vision of humanity'. Barlach was hated by the Nazis, especially his 1914-18 war memorials, which they destroyed as over-emphasising compassion over heroism. (Ernst Barlach Haus, Hamburg).
