MUNICH.- The sea as an elemental force is a key theme of Emil Nolde’s oeuvre. In 1930, he worked on a series of very special seascapes with great frenzy. With “Meer (D)“, a particularly fascinating piece will be called up in the Evening Sale of what presumably is going to be the most spectacular auction of Ketterer Kunst, Germany’s leading art auctioneer, in Munich on December 9/10.

Throughout his life, the sea was one of Emil Nolde’s main subjects. As early as in 1910/11, he created “Herbstmeere“ (Autumn Seas), a series of 20 paintings expressing the elemental force.

During a stay on the North Sea island of Sylt in the autumn of 1930, he made a series of six seascapes in a short period of time, of which two are considered lost today. A third one, “Meer (B)“, is at Tate Modern Gallery in London.

Now “Meer (D)“, formerly part of the traveling exhibition “Neuere deutsche Kunst“, the most important modernist project towards the end of the Weimar Republic, is one of the highlights of Ketterer Kunst’s autumn auction. The remarkably soulful work will enter the race with an estimate of € 800,000-1,200,000.

“Nolde’s characteristic expressive brushwork and the intensive colors make the choppy sea tangible. Creating the work, he must have felt like the French realist Gustave Courbet had 60 years earlier, when he captured mightily rising and collapsing waves with frothy spray on the French Atlantic coast“, explains Dr. Mario von Lüttichau, former custos at Museum Folkwang in Essen and Ketterer Kunst’s academic consultant.

He continues: “Courbet and Nolde were likewise fascinated by the endlessly recurring event of swashing waves and the stormy weather with the windblown spray. The sea’s roar finds direct translation in Nolde’s impulsive painting and his artistic expressiveness: a masterly depiction of nature guided by sensation, in which the island's autumnal light is reflected on the crests of the rolling waves."

Next to this work by Emil Nolde, the section of MODERN ART offers iconic works from “The Gerlinger Collection – Brücke Artists“. Among them Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Das blaue Mädchen in der Sonne“ (estimate: € 2,000,000-3,000,000), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s “Rote Düne“ (estimate: € 800,000-1,200,000) and Erich Heckel’s poplar sculpture “Stehende“ (estimate: € 600,000-800,000). Other highlights are Emil Nolde’s “Meer D“ (estimate: € 800,000 – 1,200,000), Max Beckmann’s “Holzsäger im Wald“ (estimate: € 600,000 – 800,000). More fascinating modern art comes from, among others, Hans (Jean) Arp, Lovis Corinth, Paul Gauguin, Karl Hofer, Max Liebermann, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Christian Rohlfs, Egon Schiele and Hermann Max Pechstein.

The section of CONTEMPORARY ART includes big names like Georg Baselitz with his “Hofteich“ (estimate: € 700,000-900,000) and Anselm Kiefer with “Die Ordnung der Engel” (estimate: € 300,000-400,000), but also Günther Förg, Katharina Grosse, Martin Kippenberger, Karin Kneffel, Konrad Lueg, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Günther Uecker and Gerhard Richter, as well as international artists: Richard Serra is represented with “Corner Prop No. 6 (Leena and Tuula)“, estimated at € 600,000-800,000, it is the sculptor’s first unique piece offered on the global auction market since 2016. Another highlight is “He Kept Following Me“ from David Wojnarovicz (estimate: € 350,000-450,000). The international array is completed by, among others, Tony Cragg, Keith Haring, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Stanley Whitney, who celebrates an auction premiere in Germany.