Renée Sintenis: The forgotten master of animal plastic in Berlin

Renée Sintenis: The forgotten master of animal plastic in Berlin

München-Freimann, Deutschland - On June 6, 1962, an inconspicuous but so important sculpture was set up on the medium-sized strip of the A9 motorway at the Munich-Freimann entrance. The bear boy, designed by the talented artist Renée Sintenis, symbolizes the connection between the shared Berlin and West Germany and Munich itself. But who was this remarkable woman who was looking for it in the world of sculpture?

Renée Sintenis grew up at a time when the role of women in the art scene was anything but simple. As a child, she already showed a special affinity, so reports Bayern 2 that she ran a litter in the doll car and decorated school booklets with pictures of dogs and horses. This passion led her to the decision to become an animal sculptor - a profession that was considered rather dubious at the time. Since women were not approved at the Berlin Academy of Arts, Sintenis chose an arts and crafts in which they modeled both female acts and male gods while the animal representations were neglected.

pioneering work in the sculpture

In the first years of the First World War, Sintenis began producing small plaster from plaster, including foals, deer, donkeys and gazelles. These works were well received by the public, although they were often dismissed by critics as "nipples" or "showcase art". She missed it to graduate and accept the first name "Renate", which underlines her unconventional approach.

The artistic career picked up speed - after the First World War, Sintenis was the first woman in the field of sculpture to the Academy of the Arts, but soon excluded from the academy due to her Jewish origin. Her works suffered from massive restrictions from the Nazi regime, many have been removed from public collections. Despite these adversities, she managed to make a name for herself with her plastic work.

the Berlin Bär

Perhaps her best -known work, the statue of the Berlin bear, created Sintenis 1932. This sculpture became a symbol of Berlin and found its way into the film world, where it was awarded as a trophy at the Berlin Film Festival from 1953. This award, known as the "Sintenis Bär", is awarded to the winners in silver and gold and bears the names of the award winners. This honor shows how much sintenis ’work is anchored in social perception.

Renée Sintenis is not only considered an important artist of the Weimar Republic, but also as a model for the "new woman". Their fashionable appearance and their unconventional lifestyle made them a real celebrity in Berlin in the 1920s. She developed her own design language with impressionist-flickering surface treatment and showed the ungainless of young animals in her movements-a sign of her deep connection to nature.

Today, her works can not only be found in museums, but also part of the memory of the cities that shaped it. Their bear sculptures are no longer just simple sculptures, but parts of a cultural identity that work far beyond their time of origin. Thanks to the presentation over 80 of her works in the Edwin Scharff Museum, there is also a unique opportunity to explore the creation of one of the most influential artists of their time, as

Renée Sintenis ’inheritance is imperishable. Her love for animals, her tireless struggle for recognition and her artistic vision make her a real pioneer - a role that she still embodies with grace and style.