VIENNA.- Dorotheum’s upcoming Contemporary Week kicks off with an exciting Modern Art auction, putting modern and contemporary art in the spotlight from 19 to 21 November. Jewellery and wristwatches follow on 21 and 22 November, with the Editions sale wrapping up the week on 4 December 2024.
Austrian Modern Art’s global appeal shines with works by Egon Schiele, represented by a child portrait and a powerful double nude, and the delicate drawings of his friend Gustav Klimt. A true highlight is the recently restituted Self-Portrait by Max Oppenheimer, whose bold composition and fragmented forms reveal a tormented artistic soul in turbulent times. Painted in 1933, this rare self-portrait is considered one of the most significant works of Austrian modernism and interwar art, and its presence in Oppenheimer’s studio speaks to its personal significance (€160,000 – 220,000).
An international masterpiece by Jacques Lipchitz is also featured: in Homme assis avec guitare from 1922, the cubist-inspired sculpture merges musical instrument, human figure, and furniture into a single cohesive form (€120,000 – 180,000). Giacomo Balla’s Futurismo; Fascismo e Sovversivismo; Fascisti e Antifascisti (1924/25) combines political tension with pre-Pop elements (€100,000 – 150,000). Top pieces by Albin Egger-Lienz, Alfons Walde, Kolo Moser, Francis Picabia, Franz von Stuck, Ernst Barlach, and Lyonel Feininger add to the auction’s appeal.
On 20 November, the Contemporary Art sale tackles themes of abstraction and representation. Inspired by jazz, American artist Stanley Whitney uses grids and colour fields to capture the melody of colours in The Language of Nature (2005), engaging with the legacy of Mondrian and Rothko (€300,000 – 500,000). Two colourful minimalist pieces by German artist Imi Knoebel, Anima Mundi 31-3 and Basel Fenster no. 2, echo a similar tradition.
On the other side of the abstract spectrum, coming from the gestural Informel tradition, is Martha Jungwirth. Born in Vienna in 1940, with her poetic watercolours and oil paintings she occupies a singular position in the international art scene. Jungwirth captures subjects ranging from antiquity to football stars in her “seismographic” style, as she says, using them merely as “pretexts.” The auction highlight is her large untitled work, measuring 2 x 1.4 metres (€180,000 – 280,000). German Informalist artist Hans Hartung is also represented.
Emilio Vedova’s powerful Compresenze/Tensione '82 (Passa van Gogh) nearly explodes off its more than two-and-a-half-metre canvas with expressive lines of force (€250,000 – 350,000).
Key Austrian neo-avant-garde artist Arnulf Rainer presents a rare blue overpainting from 1956, joined by a large-scale splatter painting by Hermann Nitsch from 1990 (€130,000 – 220,000, €70,000 – 130,000) and a ‘body-awareness’ painting by Maria Lassnig from the 1980s (€160,000 – 300,000).
Pop art shines with Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marcel Proust, inspired by a famous photograph of the writer, as well as a nude by Tom Wesselmann (€280,000 – 380,000; €120,000 – 160,000). Italian 1960s Pop is represented by Valerio Adami and Mario Schifano, the latter paying homage to Italian Futurism with A la Balla.
Amoako Boafo’s Teju deserves special attention; the Ghanaian-born artist is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Österreichische Galerie at the Belvedere.
Contemporary Week extends to 4 December 2024 with the first-ever Editions auction at Dorotheum, featuring prints and multiples at competitive prices – including works by major artists such as Picasso, Miró, and Chagall, alongside contemporary names like Alighiero Boetti, Jeff Koons, and Damien Hirst.
