Sale: 522 / Modern Art II, Dec. 11. 2021 in Munich Lot 406

 

406
Alfred Kubin
Der Wüstentod, 1911.
Watercolor with color pen and pen and ink drawing
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 42,500 / $ 45,900

(incl. surcharge)
Der Wüstentod. 1911.
Watercolor with color pen and pen and ink drawing.
Lower right twice signed and titled in lower left. On creme paper. 39.2 x 30 cm (15.4 x 11.8 in), size of sheet. [CH].

• Particularly detailled and neatly executed sheet.
• Characteristic graphic visualization of a nightmare: death coming towards the observer out of the darkness.
• The year this work was made Kubin, along with Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, left the "Neue Künstlervereinigung München" and joined the newly founded group "Der Blaue Reiter"
.

PROVENANCE: Collection Felix Grafe, Vienna (before 1918 directly from the artist - ca. 1925/26).
Dr. Martin Litmann, Paris (mid 1930s - at least 1964).
Galerie Welz, Salzburg (1977).
Private collection (acquired from the above, unitl 2000, Christie's, London, October 17, 2000, lot 61).
Private collection (2000-2010).
Private collection Europe (acquired from the above).

EXHIBITION: Alfred Kubin - Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, traveling exhibition at Galerie Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin, the Neue Galerie Otto Nirenstein, Wien, also with stops in Dresden and Leipzig, 1924-1925, illu. on p. 7.
Alfred Kubin, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, November 17 - December 6, 1964, cat.-no. 144.

LITERATURE: Marianne Grafe an Alfred Kubin, manuscript, July 3, 1918 (Kubin Archive, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich).
Paul Raabe, Alfred Kubin. Leben - Werk - Wirkung, Hamburg 1957, p. 121, no. 274.
Ex. cat. Alfred Kubin (1877-1959). Das zeichnerische Frühwerk bis 1904. Bilder und Schriften zu Leben und Werk (zum 100. Geburtstag), Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, October 11 - December 11, 1977, p. 80 (with color illu., plate 65).
Christie's, London, 6352nd auction, German and Austrian Art, October 17, 2000, lot 61.
"The right observer, in my mind, would not just indulge in my sheets or view them critically, but, as if inspired by a mysterious touch, would also pay attention to the images in the darkroom of his own consciousness."
Alfred Kubin, on the opening of an exhibition in 1927, quote from: Ulrich Riemerschmidt, Alfred Kubin. Aus meiner Werkstatt, Munich 1973, p. 26.




406
Alfred Kubin
Der Wüstentod, 1911.
Watercolor with color pen and pen and ink drawing
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 42,500 / $ 45,900

(incl. surcharge)