ZURICH.- The Swiss Art auction at
Koller Zurich on 7 December will feature an overview of Swiss landscape painting from the 19th to 20th centuries. Switzerland’s mountain meadows, lakes and majestic peaks are presented in widely diverse techniques and styles, from 19th-century classic views by Robert Zünd and Auguste Louis Veillon, to a landscape with willow trees by Ferdinand Hodler, to early-to-mid-20th century works by Augusto and Giovanni Giacometti, and Gottardo Segantini.
Two views of sunsets over lakes by Felix Vallotton and Adolf Dietrich (Coucher de soleil jaune et vert, 1911, and Abendstimmung am Untersee,1926) are particularly interesting examples of two modern artists working independently and yet finding similar artistic solutions. Both artists delineated the subject in two distinct zones, and employed the intensification of colour and motif to create a landscape more symbolic than natural.
The Impressionist & Modern Art sale on 7 December offers a fascinating double portrait from 1918 by German artist Emil Nolde, Doppelbild (Sie seltsames Licht). Painted with thick and generous brushstrokes and in warm and expressive tones, this portrait is representative of Nolde’s desire to render a psychological image of the subjects, who were often friends or close family members. A winter landscape by Otto Dix, Wintertag in Randegg, 1933, is a poignant witness to the years in which Dix was branded as a “degenerate” artist by the Nazis and banned to the countryside, where he turned to landscape painting in order to help himself adjust to his new existence far from city life.
A work by Pierre Soulages from 1973 offered in the PostWar & Contemporary auction on 8 December is representative of his use of deep, rich black bands to create a contrast with the powerful, luminous blue between them. Through the overlapping of the colours a limitless depth is obtained, so that the apparently archaic bands seem to continue into infinity. KASS-II, also from 1973 by Victor Vasarely, contains all of the characteristic elements of the Op-Art style that Vasarely co-founded. Its carefully constructed geometric structure enables it to shed its two-dimensionality as it tests the limits of the viewer’s perception.
The 8 December Prints & Multiples auction features a collection of Picasso ceramics as well as a silver plate, Tête en forme d'horloge, created by Picasso and realized by Pierre Hugo, from whose collection it was acquired by the present owner.
New at Koller: ibid online only
Koller will now offer timed online-only auctions, under the label “Koller ibid online only”. Decorative items in the low- to middle-range price segments with a broad appeal – which until now were sold in our “Koller West” auctions – will be offered in these sales. The bidding for Modern & Contemporary Art, Design and Vintage Fashion will open on 26 November, and bidding closes from 11 – 13 December.
