Animals are trumps: Antoni Clavé’s “Le coq” is cock of the walk at Ketterer Kunst auction

Hamburg, 16 September 2008, (kk) - Carrying an estimate of € 30 000-40 000, Antoni Clavé’s “Le coq” is literally cock of the walk. Dating from 1945, this oil painting is to lead off at the Ketterer Kunst auction of Modern Art & Post-War/Contemporary Art in Hamburg on 24 and 25 October 2008.

Clavé’s 1940s paintings reveal a number of stylistic influences: Bonnard, Vuillard, Rouault and especially Picasso, whom he met in 1944. In picture-filling close-up, “Le coq” is reminiscent of contemporaneous Picasso compositions while the intense, glowing palette and the pastose handling of paint recall Rouault.

Animals are also trumps with Jörg Immendorff. “Mann mit Affenmaske und Pinsel in Schneekugel” [“Man with Monkey Mask and Brush in Snow Globe”], measuring 81 x 64 cm, a colour serigraphy with acrylic, is to enter the lists carrying an estimate of € 20 000-25 000. “To me, the monkey has always been a second self. It is both ridiculous and sagacious and stands for opposite extremes,” thus the artist.

Also featuring in the Post-War/Contemporary Art division is a 1971 David Hockney colour lithograph “Coloured flowers made of paper and ink” with a floral motif. In this delicately coloured yet vibrant work (estimate: € 18 000-25 000), the object and the drawing fuse on the picture surface to develop a graphic effect.

At € 18 000-24 000, the estimate for the K.R.H. Sonderborg oil painting “Ohne Titel” [“Untitled”] is in the same range. The artist’s handling of subliminal flow attests to his stylistic affinities with Informel. Although the work expresses rhythm and movement, its content defies concrete interpretation.

Contemporary Art is rounded off with a portfolio (22 poems by Jean Cassou with lithographs by Dix, Ernst, Miró, Nay et al.; estimate: € 18 000-20 000) and works by Alberto Burri (estimate: € 14 000-18 000), Salvador Dalí (estimate: € 14 000-16 000), Keith Haring (estimate: € 18 000-20 000), Markus Lüpertz (estimate: € 15 000-20 000), Neo Rauch (estimate: € 18 000-24 000) and others.

The Modernen Art division, with a separate catalogue entitled Modern Art , will lead off with a 1907 Käthe Kollwitz pencil drawing carrying an estimate of € 20 000-28 000: “Vergewaltigte Bauersfrau” [“Peasant Woman, Raped”]. This is a study for an etching, which the artist did in winter 1907-08 as the sixth and penultimate work in her “Bauernkrieg” [“Peasants’ War”] cycle.

A George Grosz pen-and-brush drawing in India ink can be yours for € 16 000-24 000. His 1926 “Charakterstudien” [“Character Studies”] reveal the artist as an highly critical observer of his times. Here he has drawn a realistic, no-holds-barred picture of contemporaries.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs “Fensterausblick” [“View from the Window”] is by contrast optimistic and appropriately colourful. This watercolour and India-ink drawing was probably done around 1968 because the candlestick, which is the decisive element of this composition, also occurs in another work by the artist, which he himself dated to that year (estimate: € 14 000-18 000).

Apart from the Max Klinger portfolio “Ein Handschuh” [“A Glove”], which carries an estimate of € 14 000-18 000 and “Der weiße Blumenstrauß” [“Bunch of White Flowers”] by Marc Chagall (estimate: € 12 000-15 000), the Modern Art division is also featuring works by Julius Bissier, Tamara de Lempicka, Otto Modersohn, Pablo Picasso, Renée Sintenis, Lesser Ury, Maurice de Vlaminck and Heinrich Zille.

Pre-sale viewings of selected works have been scheduled for the following dates, times and venues:
07 - 10 October, 11 am - 7 pm
11 October, 11 am - 5 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Fasanenstrasse 70, Berlin
13 - 15 October, 11 am - 5 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Prinzregentenstrasse 61, Munich

All works will be shown:
18 October, 11 am - 5 pm
20 - 22 October, 11 am - 5 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Am Meßberg 1, Hamburg

Auction
24 October, from 4 pm (Modern Art)
Ketterer Kunst, Am Meßberg 1, Hamburg
25 October, from 3 pm (Post War)
Ketterer Kunst, Am Meßberg 1, Hamburg

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.

Press enquiries:
Ketterer Kunst
Prinzregentenstraße 61
81675 Munich
Michaela Derra
Tel.: +49 (0)89-55244-152 (Fax:-166)
m.derra@kettererkunst.de

Enquiries: Modern Art & Post-War/Contemporary Art
Ketterer Kunst
Meßberg 1
20095 Hamburg
Ruth Tenschert
Tel. +49 (0)40-374961-22 (Fax: -16)
r.tenschert@kettererkunst.de
www.kettererkunst.com

This release was published on openPR.