I Unprecedented Quality on the German Auction Market: Significant Provenances, Museum Art and Singular Opportunities for Collectors.
PREVIEW Autumn Auction December 8/9, 2023
Contemporary Art Day Sale | Evening Sale | Modern Art | 19th Century Art | Bunte Coll.
The early Murnau view by Wassily Kandinsky
(“Straße in Murnau“, 1908, estimate price: €
1.5 m. to 2.5 m.) Courtesy of Ketterer Kunst. ©
AUTUMN AUCTION DECEMBER 8/9, 2023
Richter’s First and Palermo’s Last Work.
Sensational: Evening Sale with Gerhard Richter’s fist city view and Blinky
Palermo’s last work
Auction highlight “Murnau“: Kandinsky’s early Murnau townscape –
Expressionism par excellence
Nolde painting “Palmen“ offered subject to a “fair and just solution“ achieved
between the private owners and the heirs of the acclaimed art collector Dr. Ismar Littmann
In terms of sales volume, the autumn auction at Ketterer Kunst on December 8/9 is Germany’s biggest art auction. In the Evening Sale alone, almost 90% of the 78 works on offer are in 6-figure price realms or above. In addition to internationally sought-after artists of museum quality, works from renowned collections and top lots with interesting provenances will be called up.
“We expect a very strong autumn auction, as the current demand for top quality art remains at peak level. A quality range of offers like this is rare on the art market. It has always been our goal and the guarantee for our success. Along with a global visibility realized through a sophisticated marketing strategy, it is what our clients value the most. We have recently been entrusted with outstanding works of art from international collections.” Said Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and owner of Ketterer Kunst, at a press conference in Munich. “The stunning array includes many works that have not been on the market for decades – a singular opportunity to enrich your own collection!”
Modern Art Highlights
The early Murnau view by Wassily Kandinsky, a masterpiece from the early days in Murnau – the birth of
German Expressionism. Green facades, a pink street and violet shade – that’s pure Expressionism! And a seminal work for Kandinsky, as he began to pursue his path to abstraction with Murnau motifs.
Works from renowned collections: Deutsche Bank Collection, Ahlers AG
Collection, Bunte Collection and a German private collection
Exhibition of select highlights in Frankfurt (Nov. 11/12), Cologne (Nov. 17-19),
Hamburg (Nov. 22/23), Berlin (Nov. 25-30) and Munich (Dec. 2-7).
The world coming apart: Max Beckmann’s “Drahtseilbahn in Baden-Baden“.
Berlin, 1937 / „Bergbahn in Colorado“. Saint Louis, 1949 (estimate price: €
700,000 – 900,000) is an extreme composition made in dramatic days. "It is a picture
between remembrance and aspiration, between dusk and dawn, between the past and
the hope for the beginning of a new and better life." says Mayen Beckmann about this
unusual work by her grandfather. In the fateful year 1937, immediately after the work
was made at the peak of his political defamation, Max Beckmann left Germany. With
the revision of the background in 1949, he expresses firm belief in a positive future.
With marvelously staged color contrasts and in the rare original frame, Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner captured a fleeting moment in the glowing mountains in “Alphütten und
Tinsenhorn“ from 1919/20. Formerly on permanent loan at the ‘Pinakothek der
Moderne’ in Munich, it is called up with an estimate of € 600,000 – 800,000.
In a true color frenzy, Erich Heckel celebrates the maximum dissolution of form and
color in “Blühende Kresse“ from 1907 (estimate price: € 550,000 – 750,000). There
are very few landscapes of such a fascinating quality by Erich Heckel from this year.
Most of the works made between 1905 and 1910 are considered destroyed or lost, so
owning a landscape from 1907 is something very special indeed.
Ketterer Kunst also expects strong attention for Lovis Corinth’s “Walchensee,
aufgehender Mond“ (1922). A painting of utmost museum quality estimated at €
500,000 – 700,000. A masterpiece of unleashed colors and forms: Walchensee landscapes
mark the apex of Lovis Corinth's oeuvre.
Emil Nolde, Palmen, 1915
In the 1933 work “Karavellen“ (estimate price: € 300,000 – 500,000), Lyonel
Feininger stages a departure into the unknown in a spherical sunlight. The work looks
back on an impressive exhibition history. A similar picture that Feininger once gave to
his friend Wassily Kandinsky is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Other highlights in the section of MODERN ART are, among others, Otto Mueller
“Badende in Landschaft“, 1920 (estimate price: € 600,000 – 800,000), August Macke
“Junge mit Buch und Spielsachen“, 1912 (estimate price: € 300,000 – 400,000), Franz
Marc “Blaue Kuh“, 1913 (estimate price: € 400,000 – 600,000), Heinrich
Campendonk ”Bild mit Vögeln“, 1916 (estimate price: € 350,000 – 450,000).
Contemporary Art Highlights
Gerhard Richter’s first city view “Alster (Hamburg)“, the vast Hamburg panorama in
evening light from 1963, breathes the excellent quality of Richter’s painting: It is the
fascinating combination of closenesss and distance evoked by his inimitable technique
(estimate price: € 1 m. – 1.5 m.). Richter’s paintings from the 1960s are among his
most sought-after works, while the townscapes are of highest rarity on the
international auction market (source artnet.com).
Another rarity on the international auction market is Blinky Palermo’s 8 part work on
metal. It is the last work that the exceptional talent and most progressive German
artist of the 1960s and 1970s – along with Richter and Polke – made before his timely
death at only 33. To date only two of these works were sold in international auctions
(source: artprice.com). On top of that, only one other metal work is privately-owned.
Palermo’s multi-part metal pictures (1973-1977), in which he succeeded in creating an
almost spiritual amalgamation of the object-like image carrier with color and space,
are considered the peak of his creation. (Ohne Titel 8-teilig). 1976/77. Estimate price:
€ 600,000 – 800,000)
His obsession with the emotional effects of colors and
their high-contrast interaction is what the Irish artist
Sean Scully expresses in his outstanding work “Cut
Ground Blue Grey“ (2011): A work that comprises
characteristic motifs and the essence of all his
previous creation (estimate price: € 300,000 –
500,000). Sean Scully, Cut Ground Blue Grey, 2011
Günther Uecker fascinates observers with one of his highly energetic nail fields.
These signature pieces are loaded with dynamics that captivate us time and again.
And Ketterer Kunst offers options for lovers of Uecker’s art: the highly dynamic
paintings are available in three different sizes in the autumn auctions.
Auction market premiere: Those who have a fancy for the ‘Master of the Machine
Pictures“ have three opportunities to acquire a painting by the lately deceased artist
Konrad Klapheck. Above that, the corresponding preparatory drawings in same
format are also on offer. A masterpiece of post-war art of museum quality: the larger-
than-life-sized work “Die Jagd nach dem Glück“ (1984), oil on canvas, and the charcoal
drawing in same size on canvas. The other two works are “Lamento“ from 1986 and
“Die Rettung“ (1989).
Andy Warhol is represented with a number of works in the autumn auction. Next to
Goethe (1982) in loud pop art colors - extremely rare as complete series and
Matching Set (estimate price: € 300,000 – 500,000) - it is the unique work Friedrich
II. (1986) on canvas that impresses us with its unusually large format (estimate price:
€ 500,000 – 700,000).
Ernst Wilhelm Nay is one of Germany’s most important post-war artists and is
considered a pioneer of abstract painting. His oeuvre follows a clear sequence of
different creative periods. The Evening Sale on December 8 offers several first-rate
From, left: Weißes Feld, 1997 / Wind, 2005 / Feld, 2011
masterworks from different times, among them “Rot in Rot II“, 1965 (€ 350,000 –
550,000), “Azuro“, 1952 (€ 200,000 – 300,000), “Morningstar“, 1963 (€ 200,000 –
250,000), “Himmlische Botschaft“, 1946 (€ 100,000 – 150,000), and
“Menschenschicksale II“, 1939 (€ 40,000 – 60,000) in the Contemporary Art Day Sale.
The array of excellent of works in the Evening Sale is completed by, among others,
prime works by Marc Chagall “La Femme en rouge“, 1978 (estimate price: € 400,000
– 600,000), Günther Förg “Ohne Titel“, 2005 (estimate price: € 250,000 - 350,000,
Willi Baumeister „Maschine grau mit Pfeil II“, 1926 (estimate price: € 200,000 -
300,000), Robert Rauschenberg “Holy Lattice (Urban Bourbon)“, 1988 (estimate
price: € 180,000 - 240,000), Per Kirkeby “Ohne Titel“, 2011 (estimate price: €
150,000 - 250,000), Katharina Grosse “Ohne Titel“, 2020 (estimate price: € 120,000
- 150,000), Tom Wesselmann “Standing Nude“, 1985 (estimate price: € 120,000 –
150,000) and not least “Garden Landscape“ by Willem de Kooning from 1977
(estimate price: € 90,000 - 120,000). Works by the important representative of
Abstract Expressionism are absolutely rare on the European market.
19th CENTURY ART
The two top lots come from a German private collection:
In “Der Postbote“ (around 1860), estimated at € 280,000
– 300,000, Carl Spitzweg arranged the scene like a stage
play, while “Der Angler am Waldbach“ (1844) was made
at a time when Spitzweg was intensively occupied with
caricature and the pointed pen of French draftsmen.
(estimate price: € 120,000 – 150,000).
Strong interest is also expected for Franz von Stuck’s
“Kämpfende Faune“ (1889), one of the best versions of
his key theme of fighting fauns in wonderful radiant colors
in a magic interplay with landscape, figure and sky.
Additionally, the auction comprises seven sculptures from the oeuvre of Franz von
Stuck as well as works by, among others, Hans Thoma, Wilhelm Busch, Karl
Hagemeister.
Collections in the Autumn Auction on December 8/9
The Bunte Collection will be called up in a Single Owner Sale on December 9. Its
works reflect the profile of a vast private collection of highest quality: The art of the
German expressionist painter Hermann Stenner (1891‒1914), as well as from
Westphalian Expressionism and the Hölzel circle. Key piece in the collection is
Hermann Stenner’s “Auferstehung“, 1914 (estimate price: € 80,000 – 100,000), as
well as the remarkable unique bronze: Oskar Schlemmer’s “Bauplastik R.“,
1919/1964 (estimate price: € 150,000 – 200,000).
Other renowned collections that will surely be met with strong interest:
A German private collection offers an exquisite selection of works by Carl
Spitzweg, Hans Thoma and Pierre-August Renoir. The array of gems that enrich
the Evening Sale and the 19th Century Sale is honored with an own print catalog.
The absolute highlight of the Ahlers AG Collection is Yves Klein’s “Peinture de Feu
Coleur, sans titre (FC 11), around 1961 (estimate price: € 400,000 – 600,000) and
Albrecht Dürer’s "Melencolia I (Die Melancholie), 1514 – an icon in the history of
print art and one of the world’s most famous artworks (estimate price: € 150,000 –
250,000). The curated selection is likewise honored with a printed extra catalog.
The auctions take place in Munich on December 8/9. For more information and dates,
please visit www.kettererkunst.com.
A selection of top lots will be on display on a highlight exhibition tour with stops in
Frankfurt (Nov. 11/12), Cologne (Nov. 17-19), Hamburg (Nov. 22/23), Berlin (Nov.
25-30) and Munich (Dec. 2-7).
UPCOMING DATES:
AUCTIONS IN MUNICH
December 08 Contemporary Art Day Sale / Evening Sale
December 09 19th Century Art / Bunte Collection / Modern Art
PREVIEW OF SELECT WORKS
Frankfurt: November 11 - 12, 2023
Cologne: November 17 - 19, 2023
Hamburg: November 22 – 23, 2023
Berlin: November 25 – 30, 2023
Munich: December 02 – 07, 2023 (all works).
Learn more about the preview tour and the auction here
AUCTIONS IN HAMBURG
November 27, 2023 Rare Books
ONLINE ONLY AUCTIONS
October 15 – November 15, 2023: Young Collectors
November 15 – December 10, 2023: All I want for Christmas is Art
December 10 – December 15, 2023: Masterclass Award for Young Art
Visit the current auction: onlineonly.kettererkunst.com
Ketterer Kunst with headquarters in Munich and branches in Hamburg, Cologne and
Berlin, as well as with a global network of experts, was founded in 1954. Robert
Ketterer is the second generation to run the family business. The auction house has a
focus on Fine Art from the 19th to the 21st Centuries and on Rare Books. In its market
segment, Ketterer Kunst is the number 1 in the German language region and in the
global top ten of the strongest-selling art auction houses (artprice.com). Ketterer Kunst
is the specialist for German art, as well as for many international artists sought-after in
Europe, the USA and Asia, where they realize international record prices.
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