Munich (kk) - Top quality is the buzzword at the Ketterer Kunst special auction Side lines of the German Avant-garde, to be held at the HVB Forum, Kardinal-Faulhaber-Strasse 1, Munich, on December 5, 2006. Some 60 works by artists ranging from August Babberger to Ernst Geitlinger and William Straube to Walther Wahlstedt are to go under the hammer, carrying estimates of € 500 to € 14,000.

Much of the work by these artists was lost in the war or was later destroyed and then forgotten. That is why it is so important for artists whose names need not fear comparison with the likes of Otto Dix, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and August Macke to be in the limelight once again.

This auction, it is hoped - like the two extremely successful auctions in 2004 and 2005 - will promote the rediscovery of forgotten talents and is, therefore, addressed to collectors who are interested in quality and are not to be distracted by the mere sound of famous names.

The works to be sold date from around 1900 to the late 1930s. They will be led off by a Rudolf Levy oil painting (estimate: € 10,000-14,000): "Südliche Landschaft" ["Southern Landscape"]. Levy’s glowing palette reveals the influence of his teacher, Henri Matisse, and his study of Paul Cézanne. Levy is one of the few artists of that forgotten generation to have made the leap to numerous public collections in German museums.

Stylistically up with his time, August Babberger , whose 1915 "Gewitter am See" ["Thunderstorm over the Lake"] carries an estimate of € 8,000-10,000, was at first close to Hans von Mareés and Ferdinand Hodler but later primarily to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Babberger was a true Expressionist, whose elementally stylised painting is distinguished by an intense palette and dynamic forms.

Paul Kother's "DoppelportrÄt (Otto Mueller und seine Frau)" ["Double Portrait (Otto Mueller and His Wife")] carries an estimate of € 6,000-8,000. Kother was not only friends with the Brücke artists but also linked by marriage. His close stylistic ties to "Die Brücke" led to his showing work at their exhibitions.

Taking Impressionism as the starting point of his career, Carl Christoph Hartig was intensively preoccupied with that movement but was also inspired by the Fauves and Cubism to develop a style distinctively his own. As in the 1919 oil painting "Stadt mit Kirche und Viadukt" [“Town with Church and Viaduct”], he focused on urban scenes in his work (estimate: € 4,000-5,000.

A 1919 oil painting by Hans Breinlinger goes to the opposite extreme: like so much of his work, "Akte in Landschaft" ["Nudes in Landscape"] is notable for a vibrant palette, with the paint applied in broad brush strokes as well as by the artist’s fingers and palette knife (estimate: € 3,000-4,000).

Brilliant color is also eye-catching in a Pol Cassel watercolor (estimate: € 2,000-2,500) painted in 1925. "Frühlingsabend (Allee bei Dresden)" ["Spring Evening (Country Road near Dresden)"] places the artist close to Emil Nolde, with whom he showed work in Dresden in 1928 alongside Otto Dix and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Two years later Pol Cassel had a touring group show with Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, KÄthe Kollwitz and Paul Klee.

The 1919 Fritz Fuhrken watercolor "Gefangenenlager, Baracken und Garten" ["Internment Camp, Barracks and Garden"], saw the artist trying to come to terms with his own experience of recent history. While a prisoner of war in an English internment camp, Fuhrken met members of the Berlin “Sturm” and began to paint in watercolors in 1918 (estimate: € 1,800-2,400).

A 1920s Alexander Gerbig oil painting is bound to cause a stir in the auction room. Carrying an estimate of € 1,500-2,500, "Frauen bei der Feldarbeit" ["Women Working in the Fields"]. As early as 1906 the artist, who was a friend of Hermann Max Pechstein's all his life, came into contact with the group of artists in "Die Brücke".

Annemarie Jacob is one of the few artists of this "lost generation" whose work is well documented. More than 500 watercolors, oil paintings and gouaches as well as sketches by the Leipzig artist have survived in the form of a family chronicle. In this auction she is represented by the gouache "Dorf mit Schornsteinen" ["Village with Chimneys"] and two other works, with estimates ranging between € 800 and € 1,500.

More work by the following artists is to be sold at the forthcoming auction:Walter Becker, Hans Brasch, Georg Breitwieser, Josef Eberz, Curt Ehrhardt, Elisabeth Ivanowna Epstein, Hermann Finsterlin, Andreas Friis, Emil Ganso, Ernst Geitlinger, Emil von Gerliczy, Engelbert Gminska, Hans Siebert von Heister, Otto Herbig, Oldrich Konicek, Otto Lindemann, Friedrich Ludwig, Hermann Mühlen, Helena Riedel, Heinrich Rüter, Heinrich Schlief, William Straube, Otto Wachsmuth and Walther Wahlstedt.

Pre-sale viewings of selected works are scheduled for November 15 and 16 at Ketterer Kunst, Meßberg 1 in Hamburg from 11am-5 pm. All works can be viewed at Ketterer Kunst, Prinzregentenstrasse 61 in Munich:

Nov.27 Vernissage06 pm-08 pm
Nov.27 -Dec. 01 10 am-06 pm
Dec.02 -Dec. 03 11 am-05 pm
Dec.04 09 am-01 pm

Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been firmly established in the front ranks of auction houses dealing in art and rare books. While our Munich headquarters in the Prinz-Alfons-Palais is responsible for the two traditional annual auctions of Modern Art & Post War, the Meßberghof in Hamburg is the venue for two auctions a year each based on the following fields: Old Masters and Art of the 19th Century/Marine Art and Rare Books - Autographs - Manuscripts - Decorative Prints as well as Modern Art & Post War, with a focus on works on paper. In addition, exhibitions, special auctions and benefit auctions for charity are regular events at Ketterer Kunst.

Hamburg, October 25, 2006