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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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Karl Duldig
Bronze sculpture
1970
Council House entrance, 200 Little Collins Street
Karl Duldig was born in Poland in 1902 and trained in Vienna, Austria, under renowned sculptor Anton Hanak. A Jew forced to leave Austria during the rise of Nazi Fascism, Duldig and his wife spent two years in Singapore before being deported to Australia in 1940, where they were initially interned in rural Victoria as 'enemy aliens'.
Located at the Council House entrance, Duldig's bronze wall sculpture demonstrates a hallmark of his work; although part of the modernist tradition, the émigré's sculptures always took a figurative form. The work was commissioned by Henry Krongold, the Polish-Australian businessman who owned the car park upon which this building was constructed. He then sold the building to council several years later, and the artwork was transferred with the land title.