|
Indepth Arts News:
"16 Works from the Herbert and Natalie Kirshner Collection, New York"
2001-05-02 until 2001-05-19
Ketterer Kunst
Munich, ,
DE Germany
DM 500,000 - 700,000 is the estimate for Gabriele Münter's oil painting Kandinsky und Erma Bossi am Tisch (Kandinsky and Erma Bossi at a Table) which will be up for sale on Saturday, 19 May 2001 at Ketterer Kunst's 255th auction Art of the XXth Century in the Carolinenpalais in Brienner Straße 25, Munich. The work measures 49.3 x 70 cm and is one of 16 works from the Herbert and Natalie Kirshner Collection, New York. The 83-year-old former construction magnate and his wife spent more than thirty years assembling an outstanding collection of German and French Expressionist masterpieces.
Gabriele Münter's Kandinsky und Erma Bossi am Tisch was made in 1909, like two other oil paintings with the same subject, shortly after the artist bought her house in Murnau. It shows the interior of the living room in the so-called Russenhaus – a place of intellectual exchange for the members of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. Two years later the artist repeated the motif of the lecturing Kandinsky in a version of the work which is today exhibited in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich.
Like her teacher and partner Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter was a founding member of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München and later a member of the group Der Blaue Reiter. Münter sought a new means of expression in her painting, with an emphasis on areas of colour, which she liberated of all triviality. Kandinsky recognised her success in this direction. No other work was so much admired by him during this time. He praised Münter’s ability to bring out the intellectual resonance of colour and mentioned the composition in the auction Ich mit Bossi (I with Bossi) in many discussions and lectures.
Erma Bossi, who in the painting sits opposite Kandinsky, was born in Pula and was one of the later members of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. Her acceptance into the group could be seen in connection with the conversation depicted here.
At the beginning of the 20th century Alexej von Jawlensky concentrated, for a few years, on still-life, as it was easier to discover myself in this genre. In this still-life I was not looking for the material object, but was trying to express in colour and form my internal vibrations. said the artist in his autobiography. This was the phase in which he painted his oil painting Stilleben mit Äpfeln und Flasche (Still-Life with Apples and Bottle) which is estimated at DM 400,000 – 600,000. Of crucial importance for Jawlensky until 1908 was Cézanne’s structure and Gaugin's sensitive colours, both of which are evident in this work.
August Macke's Akt auf rotem Tuch (Nude on a Red Cloth), like the Jawlensky, is also from the Herbert and Natalie Kirshner Collection in New York. The large work (mixed technique with watercolour, tempera and oil) of 1912 probably depicts Elisabeth Macke, the artist’s wife. The composition is determined by a concentration of the stature as well as a reduction and emphasis of colour and form. The pencil drawing of the same subject, Sitzender Akt mit Tuch (Seated Nude with Cloth), which is in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich was made in the same year. Akt auf rotem Tuch is estimated at DM 120,000 – 160,000.
Other works from the Collection Herbert and Natalie Kirshner, New York, are:
Paul Baum: Dorfstraße in Holland, oil on canvas
Jean Cocteau: Chèvre-Pied, crayon on paper
Auguste Herbin: Rue de l’Ecole de Taceau, oil on canvas
Alexej von Jawlensky: Madame Sid, oil on card board, around 1905
Georg Kolbe: Kauernde, bronze, 1925
André Lhote: Portrait d’une femme, oil on paper on canvas
André Lhote: Paysage, oil on canvas
Gerhard Marcks: Stehende Gewandfigur, bronze, 1960
Jean Metzinger: Paysage cubiste, oil on canvas
Jean Metzinger: Paysage provençale, oil on canvas
Zoran Music: Paesaggio umbro, oil on canvas
Gabriele Münter: Frauenporträt, oil on card board
Auguste Rodin: Torse d’homme, bronze
Maurice Vlaminck: Rue de village, watercolour
The preview of all the lots in the auction will take place from 11 – 12 May (11:00 – 22:00), from 13 – 16 May (11:00 – 17:00), on 17 May (11:00 – 20:00) and on 18 May (11:00 – 16:00) in the Carolinenpalais, Brienner Straße, Munich. Highlights of the auction will be presented to invited guests in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and Munich. Public previews during a tour of Germany will take place in Hamburg on 2 May (11:00 – 17:00) at Ketterer Kunst, Neuer Wall 40, in Düsseldorf on 4 May (12:00 –18:00) in the rooms of Martin Leyer-Pritzkow Ausstellungen in Schumannstraße 81 and in Stuttgart on 7 May (12:00 – 16:00) in the Galerie Königsblau in Königstraße 28.
The two-volumed catalogue with numerous artist biographies and comprehensive catalogue entries can be ordered under +49-89-55244-0 or -158 for DM 50. An English catalogue is also available.
Related Links:
| | 
|
