Flight, desolation and displacement are deeply inscribed in the work of Hans Josephsohn (1920–2012). Not in terms of motifs or themes, but as a fundamental life experience. Unlike the smooth, gracefully fluid agility of Lehmbruck or Maillol, who inspired him in his youth, and unlike Giacometti’s fraying dissolution of the figure in the glistening backlight of an atomic flash, for instance, Josephsohn clings firmly to the figure. Every grasp of the shapeless plaster solidifies the human