COLOGNE.- The Modern & Contemporary Art including Prints sale presents an attractive selection of Prints & Multiples and Modern & Contemporary Art in Cologne from 5 to 12 June 2024. The summer auction includes 117 lots, divided into Prints (53 lots) and Modern & Contemporary Art (64 lots). Estimated at a total of around €2 million, outstanding artistic positions from different epochs, movements and genres will be offered: from the ground-breaking works of modernism to the avant-garde concepts of the present days.

The auction includes exceptional woodcuts, linocuts, etchings and important editions by renowned printmakers such as Conrad Felixmüller, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Josef Albers, Getulio Alviani, Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter, to name only a few. On the other hand, the sale comprises paintings, drawings and sculptures from over a century by pioneering modernists such as Emil Nolde, Erich Heckel, Otto Freundlich and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as Renée Sintenis and sought-after contemporary works by artists such as Gerhard Richter, Franz West, Markus Lüpertz, Heinz Mack and Imi Knoebel and many others.

Prior to the start of the auction, the works will be on view in the galleries of Palais Oppenheim in Cologne from 5 to 11 June 2024, daily from 10.00 AM to 6.00 PM and Saturday from 12.00 to 4.00 PM. On Friday, 7 June 2024, there will be the possibility of late viewing until 9.00 PM.

Modern & Contemporary Art

The highlight of the entire auction is a work from the Modern & Contemporary Art section: Friedensreich Hundertwasser Soleil sur Tibet. The colourful painting from 1959, which was exhibited in the Austrian Pavilion at the XXXI Venice Biennale, is an impressive example of his unique pictorial language - his iconic organic spiral, which is limited only by the square shape of the canvas and whose bright colours give the composition its dynamic movement. The spiral is an important, recurring stylistic element in his oeuvre, symbolising for the artist the law of nature, the endless rhythmic continuity of birth and death and, above all, the discrepancy of the straight line - the leitmotif of all his theoretical writings on nature and architecture, vegetation and houses. The painting is also one of the most impressive examples of a series of works in which Hundertwasser explores the theme of the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet in 1959 (Estimate: €150.000-200.000).

Prints & Multiples

‘In addition to the top lots by the artists Gerhard Richter, Josef Albers and Pablo Picasso, I am delighted to be able to present you a wide-ranging offer in the Prints & Multiples section. Editions by both long-established and contemporary artists, some of which are offered without a reserve, will appeal to both young collectors and buyers who are just starting to build up their collection. More unusual works in the mid-price range are ideal for sharpening the profile of a collection. I am thinking in particular of works by Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo and Joseph Beuys, which are represented by individual lots and are also part of the fascinating En Bloc edition. The wooden cabinet with 14 drawers and extraordinary editions by 19 German artists can certainly be regarded as a small miniature museum. In addition to the names already mentioned, the work includes multiples by Sigmar Polke, Konrad Lueg and Imi Knoebel, all of whom have found a permanent place in art history, not least thanks to the commitment of publisher René Block. The work is offered at €50.000 – 70.000.’ says Martina Janke, Director, Specialist Prints & Multiples and adds:

‘For collectors of prints by German Expressionists, the auction includes a fine selection, for example by Emil Nolde, who is represented with eight lots, Max Beckmann, Max Pechstein, Otto Dix, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Conrad Felixmüller.’

The top lot from the Post War section in the Prints & Multiples segment is the large-format edition Vorhang (Curtain) by Gerhard Richter. The digital inkjet print is based on the 1965 oil painting Vorhang III (light) and is an impressive example of how Richter challenges the viewer through the combination of almost perfect illusion and blurring. With his photorealistic works from the 1960s, Richter blurs the boundary between photography and painting and in the process manages to scrutinise reality. The edition created in 2011/12 and offered here, which has the same format as the oil painting from 1965, is estimated at €80.000-120.000.

Josef Albers extends the offer with his 12-part work SP (Homage to the square) from 1967, estimated at €60,000-80,000. Josef Albers' most famous and influential series of works, which he only began in 1949/50, was the peak of his artistic career and occupied him in countless variations until his death. His Homages are based on a consistent, strict pattern of interlocking squares, which he varied using different colour combinations. The present set of twelve screen prints, SP (Homage to the Square), is an impressive example of how Albers finds endless variations of a composition through the systematic repetition of squares within squares. The portfolio was published by Poldi Domberger, the pioneer of artistic screen printing in Germany, for Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne, and bears witness to the fact that Albers' works were among the most formative and influential artistic trends of the 1960s.

This print of a linocut by Pablo Picasso was in family possession for a long time: Grande tête de femme au chapeau, created in 1962, estimated at €40.000-60.000, is a large-format print in an edition of only 50 copies. With two-dimensional, organic and geometric forms in brown and beige, he depicts his lover Jacqueline in both portrait and profile. The print is testimony to Picasso's years of exploring different printing techniques. It also illustrates how masterfully he was able to utilise the characteristics of the linocut, which he had already been working with since the late 1930s, but only rediscovered through the publisher of this print, Hidalgo Arnéra.