BERLIN.- Whether Modern or Contemporary Art – the beauty of provocation prevailed in every epoch. Accordingly, both expressiveness and poignancy characterize the range of offers in the Online Only Auction that Ketterer Kunst opened on December 11, 2022 will end this January 15, 2023 under the motto “UNCOVERED – The Beauty Of Provocation“.

This exceptional theme sale shows a wide range of angles international artists have on the human body. Erotic, passion and sensuality come to the fore in the most different ways in select works from the 20th and 21st century by renowned artists like Horst Antes, Alexander Archipenko, Stephan Balkenhol, Max Beckmann, Salvador Dalí, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Allen Jones, Max Kaus, Georg Kolbe, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gerhard Marcks, Helmut Middendorf, Emil Nolde, Hermann Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, Werner Scholz and Georg Tappert.

The auction’s top lot with an estimate of € 20,000-30,000 comes from Mel Ramos. The excellent “Hav-a-Havana #4: The Lost Painting of 1965 #17“ dated 1997, in the artist’s typical technique and brilliant colors, is the first watercolor from this series offered on the international auction market. The work is a signature piece from the oeuvre of the acclaimed representative of American Pop Art, whose trademark is the spoof of the advertising industry. He moved the triviality of the combination of sex and advertising center stage by decorating consumer goods with lascivious pin-up girls.




Another Anglo-Saxon representative is Julien Opie, whose multiple “Suzanne walking (close up)“ from 2005, estimated at € 8,000-10,000, is kept in the British documenta participant’s characteristic reduced and extremely precise style. It is particularly captivating for the lenticular technique, which gives the observer an impression as if the depicted person moved between different perspectives.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Sitzender Akt, Dodo (Halbakt)“ a classic, intimate studio scene from the sought-after “Brücke“ days, makes for a perfect counterexample. The small pencil drawing was made in the artist’s Dresden studio around 1910. At that point his place of work and living was a hub for him and his fellow artists, as well as for their female amateur models. The work is a prime example of German Expressionism and will enter the race with an estimate of € 10,000-15,000.

With numerous highlights in various media and techniques, the offered works and positions range over subtle aesthetics of female nudes, like it is the case with the small bronze “Beschaulichkeit“ (estimate: € 8,000-12,000) by Fritz Klimsch, more explicit depictions like Otto Dix’s “Dompteuse“ (estimate: € 5,000-7,000) all the way to several works by George Grosz (estimates between € 7,000- 12,000) rated “For Adults Only“.

Find all works in the Online Only Auction “UNCOVERED – The Beauty of Provocation“ around the clock on onlineonly.kettererkunst.com