(openPR) - Munich, 12 November 2008, (kk) - On 29 November Ketterer Kunst opens the doors of its new Munich headquarters. Guests will then be able to take a first tour of the new House for Art while keeping an eye on the 1909 Emil Nolde “Landscape” (estimate: € 800 000-1 200 000) which is to lead off at the inaugural auctions on 3 and 4 December.
Covering some 3500 square meters and three floors, the new house for art in the immediate vicinity of Neue Messe Munich comprises a state-of-the-art auction room, a generous amount of exhibition space, an art lounge with a readers’ corner, a coffee bar with cosmopolitan ambience and what is probably the world’s biggest art show window at 8 metres high by 23 metres wide.
“I am delighted that this dream has now come true and we have so much room for art with over 1000 square meters exhibition space. With all this and to top it off with a wide range of parking possibilities, we are responding to wishes expressed by our clientele. So art objects can now be brought by car directly into the new House,” thus Robert Ketterer, builder of the new house and owner of Ketterer Kunst.
The triad of works to lead off at the inaugural auction of Modern Art, along with the Emil Nolde oil painting mentioned above, a vibrantly glowing “landscape of the soul”, and two Nolde watercolours “Seebüll unter blau-violettem Himmel” [“Seebüll beneath a Blue-Purple Sky”] (estimate: € 140 000-180 000); “Marschlandschaft” [“Marsh Landscape”] (estimate: € 100 000-150 000), also includes an August Macke watercolour (estimate: € 300 000-400 000). Macke painted “Frauen am See (Die Landung)” [“Women by a Lake (Landing-Stage)”] in 1913 while on holiday in Switzerland. This snapshot of an idyllic scene flooded with light is sure to captivate many art lovers as it radiates not only spontaneity and freshness but also tranquillity and relaxing recreation.
The same holds for two oil paintings by Max Liebermann and Hermann Max Pechstein, respectively (estimate: € 250 000-350 000 each). Whereas “Der Nutzgarten in Wannsee nach Westen” [“The Kitchen and Cutting Garden Looking West”] features a charming jumble of vegetables and flowers, Pechstein’s “Nach der Heimkehr” [“Homeward Bound”] is about fisherman coming home with their catch.
Another work to make the auction room tingle is “Cariatide” [“Caryatid”] (estimate: € 100 000-120 000) by Amedeo Modigliani. Done c. 1911, this drawing in blue chalk and pencil is in an extremely successful in-house tradition. In June this year - a repeat performance echoing 2006 and 2007 - a similar work nearly quadrupled its estimate of € 120 000 to sell for € 425 000*. Another Modigliani drawing in chalks, “Tête de femme” (1913) will spark off bidding skirmishes (estimate: € 900 000-120 000).
Figuring prominently in the Modern Art division are important works by Hanns Bolz (“Flechtheim Portrait”; estimate: € 18 000-24 000), Max Liebermann (“Loving Couple ...”; estimate: € 70 000-90 000), Franz Marc (“Small Mountain Pasture Study”); estimate: € 150 000-200 000), Wilhelm Morgner (“Portrait of a Man”; estimate: € 70 000-90 000), Gabriele Münter (“Mottled Vase”), estimate: € 140 000-180 000) Pablo Picasso (“Bacchanale au taureau noir”; estimate: € 60 000-80 000), Leo Putz (“Peaceful Days”; estimate: € 80 000-120 000), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Prints portfolio-10 woodcuts; estimate: € 90 000-120 000) and Arnold Topp (“Landscape with Red Figures”, estimate: € 70 000-90 000).
The Post War & Contemporary Art division is headed by a 1969 oil painting in a large format (230 x 200cm) by Konrad Klapheck. It enters the lists carrying an estimate of € 600 000-800 000. With this work the artist has returned to his original motif, the typewriter. “Der Gesetzgeber” [“The Legislator”] is impressively polysemic: it permits multiple interpretations. The work can be interpreted both as a throne and as a head; the typewriter keyboard with the letters in Gothic script probably represent the nose in the latter case. Apart from the Adler typewriter, the artist was inspired by a drawing of the west façade of Bath Abbey done by J. M. W. Turner in 1796. Viewed from below, the typewriter really does have something of the majesty of a Gothic church façade about it. This is a museum-quality work and is one of the most important Typewriter Pictures by the Surrealist Klapheck.
Another work right at the top of the list is Andy Warhol’s “Untitled (building)”. So brilliant are the colours that, although cool, pure and detached, this 1984 work painted on canvas with synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen inks radiates a cheerful atmosphere. For all the superficial seductiveness of Warhol’s art, it nonetheless goes deep and is so memorable that a brief glance ensures a Warhol will be burnt forever on our subconscious. Measuring 142 x 106.7 cm, this Warhol carries an estimate of € 300 000-500 000.
A. R. Penck’s “Ohne Titel (Y/2)” [“Untitled (Y/2”] might be yours for € 150 000-250 000. Painted in synthetic resin in 1977, the work is in 14 parts. It reveals the full gamut of this versatile artist’s formal language, ranging from the figurative to the abstract and sign-like. Another A. R. Penck, from the Iraq series, is an abstract and reductive portrayal of man in a world he himself has created. Painted (1985) in oil on canvas, it enters the lists carrying an estimate of € 40 000-60 000.
Certainly well worth a mention are Imi Knoebel’s “Ohne Titel” (estimate: € 70 000-90 000) and Lucio Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale - 6 Teatrini” (estimate: € 70 000-80 000) as well as Roy Lichtenstein’s “Roommates”, Sigmar Polke’s “Knochen-Mobile” [“Bone Mobile”] (estimate: € 50 000-70 000) and the Norman Bluhm oil painting “Cloud Chambers”, which measures 2.90 x 3.30 m (estimate: each € 60 000-80 000).
Moreover, important works by the following are to be called: Bernard Schultze and Emil Schumacher (estimate: each € 50 000-70 000), Daniel Richter (estimate: € 50 000-60 000), Jonathan Meese (“Don Knurrhahn (Selbstportrait)” [“Don Knurrhahn (Self-Portrait)”] (estimate: € 45 000-55 000), Norbert Kricke and Tom Wesselmann (estimate: each € 40 000-60 000).
The inaugural auction will be complemented by two special auctions: at the auction Side lines of the German Avant-garde, which by now is almost a tradition, more than 100 works by the likes of Curt Ehrhardt, Moriz Melzer, Hermann Mühlen, Fritz Schaefler, Louis Seel and Fritz Stuckenberg are to go under the hammer while the special auction devoted to the Collection Stiftung Kunst und Recht [Foundation Art and Law] features a total of 23 abstract “Informel” paintings with estimates ranging from € 2000 - € 250 000. All are to be called at half their lower estimates. The highlight of the collection Stiftung Kunst und Recht is Emil Schumacher’s “Mabudan”, which carries an estimate of € 150 000-250 000 (see separate press release).
Auction venue: Ketterer Kunst, New House for Art, Joseph Wild Strasse 18, 81829 Munich.
Auctions begin:
3 December: 4.30 pm: Side lines of the German Avant-garde
approx. 5.30 pm Modern Art
4 December: 5.30 pm: Collection Stiftung Kunst und Recht
approx. 6 pm: Post War & Contemporary Art
Pre-sale viewings have been scheduled for the following dates, times and venues:
Mo 17 November - Th 20 November, 11 am-6 pm (selected works)
Ketterer Kunst, Meßberg 1, Hamburg
Sa 22 November - Fr 28 November, 11 am-7 pm (selected works)
Ketterer Kunst, Fasanenstrasse 70, Berlin
Sa 29 November, 11 am-6 pm (all works)
Su 30 November, 11 am-6 pm; from 11 am: Advent brunch
Mo 01- Tu 02 December, 10 am-8 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Joseph Wild Strasse 18, Munich-Riem
* The sale price equals hammer price + 18 per cent surcharge on hammer prices exceeding € 200 000
Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been firmly established in the front ranks of auction houses dealing in art and rare books with headquarters in the Prinz Alfons Palais in Munich and a branch in Hamburg. Gallery rooms in Berlin as well as representatives in Heidelberg, Krefeld and New York have contributed substantially to the company's success. Ketterer Kunst has further rounded off its portfolio by acquiring the prestigious Ernest Rathenau Verlag, New York/Munich. In addition, exhibitions, special auctions, benefit auctions for charity and live online auctions are regular events at Ketterer Kunst.
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