The prophet

In 1933, one year before his death, Gargallo in Paris completed the more than lifesized statue The Prophet. The artwork has an important calibration value and switching function as the crowning achievement of an entire development that has characterized the work of the artist continuously. Gargallo suggests the volume of the figure with scarce resources. The renunciation of the full round form and the replacement of the spherical shape and of the closed form by the open form of the tangible by the allusion bear witness to a new form language and give it a special artistic value. The waving hair, the sharply drawn nose and especially the screaming mouth, underline the strength of the violence and the conviction with which the prophet proclaims his message. The Prophet illustrates the modern spirit that wants to break through the outer shell of a psychic form in order to reach the core of the given.