MUNICH.- It is not only an outstanding work in Gabriele Münter's œuvre, the painting 'Der blaue Berg' played an important role in the history of events that led to the 'Blaue Reiter'. Now the artist's masterpiece will be called up in Ketterer Kunst's jubilee auction in Munich on 5 and 6 December.

Together with her artist colleagues Jawlensky, Kandinsky and Werefkin, Gabriele Münter discovered the landscape around Murnau in late summer of 1908. They stayed at the inn 'Gasthof Griesbräu', which is still in existence today, and captured the surroundings in swiftly executed paintings. These weeks in Murnau would become the origin of the 'Blaue Reiter' and they marked a turning point in Münter's artistic development. It was in the landscape at the foothill of the Alps where the artist found a catalyst for her quick development from Post-impressionism to Expressionism and attained her personal style.

The work 'Der blaue Berg', which had been considered lost for a long time, is one of Gabriele Münter's most distinguished creations from this ground-breaking period. The composition mattered so much to her that it served as model for later repetitions. This primal version, executed on cardboard with swift and poised strokes of the brush, shows all the freshness that is immanent in an inspiring idea.

Almost 50 years after the important work was made, the artist still thinks about the programmatic painting: “I remember the small painting 'Der blaue Berg'. (…) as a very special experience. I quickly rendered the impressions I had. Then it felt like an awakening, it felt as if I was a bird that had sung its song.“*

The unusual composition will be called up with an estimate of € 250.000-350.000.

Further highlights in the section of Modern Classics come from Otto Mueller ('Liebespaar/Sitzendes Zigeuner-Liebespaar', estimate: € 800.000-1.200.000), August Macke ('Unter den Lauben von Thun (Ein Spaziergängermotiv)', estimate: € 600.000-800.000) and Egon Schiele ('Liegender weiblicher Akt mit angezogenen Beinen', estimate: € 300.000-400.000) as well as amongst others from Otto Dix, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Additionally, the separate catalog 'Aus der ehemaligen Sammlung Laaff' offers more than 30 works by, among others, Conrad Felixmüller ('Der Maler Otto Schubert und Frau', estimate: € 100.000- 150.000), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Robert Michel, Max Pechstein, Franz Radziwill, Josef Scharl and Georg Schrimpf.

Next to Kazuo Shiraga's impressive oil painting 'Chijikusei Gotenrai' (estimate: € 400.000-600.000), the section of Post War Art offers works by ZERO artists (e.g.: Günther Uecker 'Weißer Wind', estimate: € 400.000-600.000) as well as masterpieces by Gerhard Richter, Martin Kippenberger and Andy Warhol, who is represented with an extra catalog.

The section of Contemporary Art showcases a chibachrome impression by Andreas Gursky ('Ayamonte', estimate: € 120.000-150.000) as well as works by, among others, Anselm Reyle, Tony Cragg and George Condo.



* Translation of quote after A. Hoberg [publisher], Wassily Kandinsky und Gabriele Münter in Murnau und Kochel, 1902-1914. Briefe und Erinnerungen, Munich 1994, pp. 45f., 53f.)