Sale: 534 / Contemporary Art Day Sale, Dec. 09. 2022 in Munich Lot 199

 

199
Adolf Luther
Sphärisches Hohlspiegelobjekt, Ca. 1980.
Three movable steles. Half-transparent concave ...
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 52,500 / $ 56,700

(incl. surcharge)
Sphärisches Hohlspiegelobjekt. Ca. 1980.
Three movable steles. Half-transparent concave mirrors in object box.
One stele: 200 x 40 x 11 cm (78.7 x 15.7 x 4.3 in). Two steles: 232 x 35 x 10 cm (91,3 x 13,7 x 3,9 in).
[KT/AR].
• Strictly serial arrangement of identical elements.
• Luther made the three rotating steles for the VEBA headquarters in Düsseldorf-Golzheim.
• With his conceptual approach he made an important contribution to light art.
• Participation in international exhibitions on Kinetic Art, Zero and Op-Art
.

With a written expertise issued by Dr. Magdalena Broska, Adolf-Luther-Foundation Krefeld, dated November 16, 2010.

PROVENANCE: Collection VEBA AG, Düsseldorf-Golzheim (acquired from the artist.
Private collection Bavaria (acquired from the above).



Before Adolf Luther devoted himself to light art in the 1960s, he spent a long time looking for the right artistic means of expression in painting. In 1957/58 he first experimented with gestural-informal painting, but he failed in this attempt. He only found his way to light art through color field painting. In addition to his great fascination for the physical phenomenon of light, the conceptual approach of this art movement also helped him to free himself from traditional panel painting. Or as he described it himself: "The fact that nature has other visual means for artistic expression besides colors is one of the special experiences that have occupied the creative imagination in recent years. The desire to examine the image of the world increasingly disappears, while the property of the concrete phenomena, namely light and movement, have come to the fore, properties that are essentially transoptical and therefore elude representational access. " (Adolf Luther, quoted from: Ralph Merten, Luther. Magie des Lichts, Stuttgart 1990, p. 9). With his artistic endeavor to make the invisible visible and to grasp a reality that eludes pictorial representation, he finally became one of the main representatives of Kinetic Art and Optical Art. His "concave mirror objects" always have a strict serial arrangement of identical elements and exclusively as an instrument for a new perception of light. [AR]



199
Adolf Luther
Sphärisches Hohlspiegelobjekt, Ca. 1980.
Three movable steles. Half-transparent concave ...
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 52,500 / $ 56,700

(incl. surcharge)