Celebrating with art’s biggest names, Ketterer Kunst announces its 400th auction

MUNICH.- Alexej von Jawlensky, Max Liebermann, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter and Zao Wou-Ki – to name but a few of the important artists represented with their masterpieces in the 400th auction at Ketterer Kunst on 8 December.

The focal points will be on 1. Modern Art and 2. Post War/Contemporary Art.

Modern Art
This section is led by Hermann Pechstein’s impressive work “Die Quelle“. The oil painting, estimated at € 300.000-500.000, is one of the artist’s earliest paintings known of today. Made around an extremely important point of time, that is in 1906, when Pechstein joined the artist group “Die Brücke“. The work, executed in Secessionist style, celebrates female beauty and its life-giving powers, its role as seducer, as goddess and as mother earth, as well as – and that is not least – as the artist’s muse.

Next to Heinrich Campendonk’s 1913 oil painting “Zwei Pferde“, which masterly hovers between abstraction and figuration, it is Alexej von Jawlensky’s “Wasserburg“ from 1906 that is particularly captivating for it was executed in a characteristic color canon of shades of red and blue showing slight notions of purple. Both works will enter the race with estimates of € 200.000-300.000 each.

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild. 1980. Oil on wood. 40,1 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in). Estimate: € 350.000-450.000

A little below this mark, with an estimate of € 180.000-240.000, is Max Liebermann’s work “Aus dem Grunewald“, from 1912, which conveys an excellent interplay of light and shade. The oil painting’s special charm is in its sketch-like arrangement, delivering proof of Liebermann’s great poise in creating drafts that already possess a definite statement.

Several works by Gabriele Münter can be found among the top lots. The two landscape oil paintings “Kirche an der Ramsach“ (estimate: € 150.000-200.000) and “Narvik Hafen“ (estimate: € 120.000-150.000) are especially captivating.

To Emil Nolde, who is represented with almost a dozen works, the experience of nature was a heart matter. Taking the brush in order to create one of his flower watercolors (e.g. “Sonnenblumen und Rittersporn“, estimate: € 120.000-160.000), he did so with the emphasis of a great admirer of nature’s intensive colors. With his unique technique he time and again created exceptional works.

Yet another exciting lot is Egon Schiele’s “Liebespaar“, carrying an estimate of € 130.000-150.000. The erotic depiction, in which the artist neutralizes the scene’s seemingly pornographic aspect with a clear linearity and duct, was dedicated to his friend and lather brother-in-law Anton Peschka. The fact that the motif did not speak against a dedication speaks for the friendship between the two artists.

Besides works by Heinrich Campendonk (“Mariä Verkündigung“) and Franz Radziwill (”Dangast vom Meere aus“), both estimated with € 120.00-150.000, works by artists such as Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Lyonel Feininger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Auguste Rodin are also quite promising.

Post War / Contemporary Art
This section is led by a fulminate and uncompromisingly luminous work by Gerhard Richter. Created in context of the “Abstract Paintings“ made as of 1976, the oil painting is part of a radical new beginning that expresses lively and pulsating colors after the period of his “gray paintings“. The estimate is at € 350.000-450.000.

Among the top lots is also Emilio Vedova’s “Plurimo su binario“ from 1977/78. The artwork that moves on rails is an extremely rare piece executed in different techniques and materials, such as wooden boards with iron hinges. It will be called up with an estimate of € 150.000-200.000 .

While Roy Lichtenstein picks out the light effects as central issue of the scene in his “Two Nudes“ (estimate: € 150.000-180.000), Pierre Soulages wants to express nothing less than the “overall complexity and richness of life“* with his “Peinture 54 x 56 cm, 30. septembre 1975“. The composition manages to impress the observer through its tints of deep black and luminous blue, the free gestures and the structure of partly thick and partly thin paint. The estimate of € 120.000-150.000 seems to be of secondary importance.

Further works come from, among others, Willi Baumeister (“Helle Bewegung 3“, estimate: € 100.000-150.000), Damien Hirst (“Beautiful Flora Lunacy Painting“, estimate: € 100.000-120.000), Hans Hartung, Karl Otto Götz, Heinz Mack, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Günther Uecker and last but definitely not least Zao Wou-Ki (“28.3.71”, estimate: € 300.000-400.000).