Oscar Zügel: Icarus (1936)
Oscar Zügel: Icarus (1936)
Wenige haben meine Emigration verstanden, die meisten fanden meinen Entschluss übertrieben, vaterlandslos. Es gab hernach Freunde, die den Empfang von Briefen durch die Post verweigerten, andere ließen Briefe und Geschenke unbeantwortet, und als mir die Spanische Revolution mich um den Rest meiner geretteten Habe brachte, hat kaum einer ein teilnehmendes Wort für mein Unglück gefunden, die meisten freuten sich. So fing es an vor 14 Jahren, so ging es weiter bis heute, wohl habe ich ein Pulverfass verlassen, aber leider nur gegen ein anderes umgetauscht.
[Few people understood my emigration, most found my decision excessive, unpatriotic. Later there were friends who refused to accept letters through the post, others left letters and gifts unanswered, and when the Spanish Revolution deprived me of the last of my salvaged possessions, almost no-one had a sympathetic word for my misfortune, most of them were glad. That’s how it started 14 years ago, that’s how it’s been until now, I might have left a powder keg, but unfortunately I merely exchanged it for another. (ed. trans.)]
Oscar Zügel in a letter to his sister Julie, 7 November 1946
After Oscar Zügel arrived in Spanish exile, he was both happy in his life and highly productive in his work, at least at first. In Tossa de Mar – an artists’ colony – he and his family found a new home. Here, too, Oscar Zügel used his works to respond to contemporary socio-political events. Such a work is his 1936 painting Icarus, which foresaw the fall of fascism.
The figure of Icarus is derived from Greek mythology. Icarus, who planned to fly from the island of Crete on wings of feathers and wax, flew too close to the sun and fell to Earth. His arrogance and his refusal to heed his father’s warnings led to the fall.
Zügel’s Icarus, on the other hand, addresses the consequences of the boundless hubris of fascism, which saw itself in the role of saviour. Zügel recognised that the limitless megalomania and scorn for all limits – particularly human limits – would inevitably bring about the collapse of the system. The falling figure – whose legs and wings suggest the shape of the swastika – loses power and form and so points to the end of the Nazi dictatorship.
When Zügel was forced to leave Spain in 1936 his house was occupied and plundered by the Guardia Civil and soldiers used his paintings for target practice. Some of his works were hidden by Spanish fishermen, who saved them from destruction. Icarus was one of the them.
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