VIENNA.- At the end of June, Dorotheum will be switching into ‘Contemporary’ mode. The auction week for modern and contemporary art will take place from 23 to 25 June 2020 and will include pieces of art from every era of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Wristwatches and pocket watches will follow on 26 June.

Modern Hieroglyphics
Contemporary art sale 24 June 2020
Both Keith Haring and A. R. Penck worked with striking visual effects and symbols. Their works, which will make an appearance at the auction of contemporary art on 24 June 2020, are based on ancient signs and patterns. Modern hieroglyphics can be spied on Keith Haring’s pyramid sculpture stretching 75 cm tall and completed in 1989, one year before his death (€ 120,000 – 160,000). Some of Haring’s characteristic symbols appear on this ecstatic celebration of life and take these figures (originally created for New York’s subway system) to the next level.

From Dresden’s underground, in turn, come the lively formats of A. R. Penck. Cave painting meets graffiti, expressionism meets op art, with stylistic devices which earned him the reputation of ‘father of the Junge Wilde’. His characteristic stick figures can be found on both of the monochrome paintings ‘Kreislauf der Spiele (Cycle of Games)’ from 2005 and on ‘Where I come from’ from 1999 (€ 100,000 - 150,000, € 35,000 - 50,000).

Anti-Painting
Graphic structures and textures are also the subject explored by Carla Accardi and her husband Antonio Sanfilippo, albeit in the 1950s and 1960s. They strove to create a form of anti-painting based on contrast and inversion, consisting of intertwining graphic signs. Examples of this ‘art autre’ include Accardi’s ‘Integrazione n. 2’ and Sanfilippo’s untitled canvas from 1960 (€ 75,000 – 100,000, € 24,000 - 32,000).

Other works by great post-war modernists will also come under the hammer at the auction, with pieces by Hans Hartung, Jesus Rafael Soto, Mario Schifano, Christian Boltanski or by the recently deceased artist Christo.

Austrian contemporary art is also well-represented with works by various artists, including Maria Lassnig, Arnulf Rainer, Hans Bischoffshausen, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Hermann Nitsch and Gottfried Helnwein.

The Renaissance Model
Modern art sale 23 June 2020
An unusual painting by Tamara de Lempicka, known for her art déco femme fatales, is one of the highlights of the Modern Art auction on 23 June 2020. This unfinished portrait of a woman in half profile saw de Lempicka be inspired by paintings from the Italian Renaissance (€ 80,000 – 120,000). Fernando Botero was also influenced by South American motifs and works from that era, to which he dedicated great volumes, as was typical of him, in pieces such as the ‘Couple under the Umbrella’ (€ 180,000 – 260,000). Renato Guttuso, in turn, draws on a depiction of a boy in a picture by Caravaggio. He, as mercilessly realistic as the Old Master, transports the young man into a modern-day laundry room (€ 70,000 – 100,000).

Probably most famous Austrian protagonist of the Neue Sachlichkeit, Rudolf Wacker, took a statue of a martyr as the starting point for his painting ‘Stilleben mit St. Sebastian’, 1927. In his studio, Wacker surrounded himself with various artifacts which he assembled into picture templates. In this case, he created an arrangement around the statue that included a cactus, a box, a bird sculpture and paintings. ‘Still lifes give us more freedom than landscapes or portraits,’ the artist wrote in his diary, ‘because we are involved from the very composition of the allegation onwards, we’re in charge of its construction from the beginning’ (€ 80,000 – 140,000).

‘Sich entkleidende Frau’ (Woman Undressing), 1917, one of Egon Schiele’s inimitable chalk drawings, has an eventful history: this lot is coming up for sale now that a settlement has been reached between the current owner and the heirs of Dr Heinrich Rieger (€ 180,000 – 260,000).

Two Tyrolean motifs painted by Alfons Walde in 1935, the ‘Sonntag in Tirol’ and the ‘Einsamer Berghof’, are currently under private ownership in The Netherlands and are coming up for auction (€ 80,000 - 140,000, € 280,000 – 340,000).

Other well-known names making an appearance at the auction: Franz von Stuck, Max Liebermann, Gustav Klimt, Giorgio Morandi, Frantisek Kupka, Oskar Laske, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky – and finally, Pablo Picasso, in the form of a collection of ceramics.