Hamburg (kk) - Wolfgang Mattheuer’s "Paradiesgarten, 98/6" ["Garden of Paradise, 98/6"], carrying an estimate of € 40,000-60,000, is to lead off the Ketterer Kunst auction of Modern Art & Post War to be held at Meßberg 1, Hamburg, on March 30 and 31, 2007.

Matteheuer, the founder of the Leipzig School, loves contradictions between title and motif. His 1998 oil painting of the Garden of Paradise only looks paradisiacal at first glance. However, the purported optimism of this work is not reconclied with the oddly stiff arrangement of the figures and the question of how they are interrelated. Without being one-dimensional or moralising, Mattheuer gets across his slant on society. This includes the subject of domesticated and deformed nature.

Unlike the doyen of the Leipzig School, Henry Moore addressed the Earth Mother theme in "Reclining Figure". Here the artist has not seen a seductive nude in this recumbent figure but instead woman and her primordial destiny as a being who brings forth life. The estimate for this watercolour ranges from € 25,000-35,000.

Other top estimates are unsurprising for both Asger Jorn’s sequence of twelve colour woodcuts "Etudes et surprises" (estimate: € 18,000-20,000) and an untitled work by Günther Förg dating from 1991, in which Förg gives masterly expression to artistic states of emotion and working processes. This work in a large format carries an estimate of € 14,000-18,000.

In the sculpture division Fritz Koenig is represented by no fewer than four works in bronze, including "Kugelrelief VII" ["Spherical Relief VII: 1969"] (estimate: € 12,000-15,000). A native of Würzburg, Koenig subjects the dichotomy between geometric and organic structures to searching examination.

The geometric basic form is also important to Michael Croissant in the 1999 sculpture "Figur" ["Figure"], measuring 155 x 40 x 18.5 cm. Nonetheless, the artist leaves viewers scope for their own thoughts. With its dark patina, this work looks enigmatic, almost magical, certainly unfathomable. At € 10,000-12,000, the estimate is, however, certainly realistic.

Carrying a somewhat lower estimate, € 7000-9000, an untitled work in acrylic by K.R.H. Sonderborg was bought hot off the easel in 1990 directly from the artist by a Berlin collector.

In the Post War division, moreover, alongside Alighiero Boetti’s "Un pozzo senza fine" (estimate: € 10,000-15,000) and Fred Thieler’s "0/76" (estimate: € 12,000-14,000), three works by Fritz Winter (estimates: € 5000-9000) are to go under the hammer in the august company of works by Horst Antes, Georg Baselitz, Eduardo Chillida, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Sigmar Polke, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Pierre Soulages, Frank Stella, Helmut Sturm, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann.

The Modern Art division will lead off with two Karl Schmidt-Rottluff watercolours. Unlike the artist’s work in oils, these watercolours in particular are fascinatingly spontaneous, notable for an immediacy which is the direct result of the rapidity with which this tricky medium must be handled. "Nachmittagssonne am Lebasee" ["Afternoon Sun at Lake Leba"] is expected to fetch € 25,000-30,000 while "Im Pleissebachtal" ["In the Pleissebach Valley"] might be yours for just € 18,000-25,000.

Carrying a similar estimate at € 18,000-20,000, the 1914 August Macke charcoal drawing "Unter den Lauben in Thun I" ["Under the Galleries at Thun I"] concentrates on architectural elements depicted on staggered spatial planes.

There is definitely a linkage of still life and genre painting in a 1930s Gregorio Sciltian oil painting "Musikstunde" ["Music Lesson"] (estimate € 14,000-18,000). Here the static, almost remote scenery also reveals echoes of the pittura metafisica of that day.

"Hängende Sonnenblumen" ["Sunflowers, Their Heads Hanging"], painted in 1933 by Christian Rohlfs in watercolour and chalks, makes an entirely different impression (estimate: € 14,000-16,000].

The Erich Heckel woodcut "Roquairol" is bound to create a stir in the auction room. This work is a portrait of Heckel’s colleague, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (estimate: € 12,000-15,000), while Heckel’s "Parklandschaft" ["Park Landscape"] in watercolour and chalks rounds off this rich offering at the very reasonable estimate of € 8,000-12,000.

An untitled 1940s/1950s Mario Sironi oil painting (estimate: € 10,000-13,000) echoes, despite being in a format measuring only 28.2 x 40.5 cm, the classical monumentality of the style the artist developed in the 1930s.

The conditions under which Max Beckmann painted "Apokalypse" have made history. The proprietor of a type foundry commissioned the artist, who had been living in exile in Amsterdam since his work was proscribed by the National Socialists as "degenerate", to illustrate the Revelation of St John the Divine. Under conditions that smacked of conspiracy against the regime, Beckmann finished this portfolio containing 27 illustrations to the Apocryphal text. In the fourth year of the second world war, the work (estimate: € 8000-12,000) represented to both patron and artist a tellingly accurate prediction of the downfall of the Third Reich.

In addition to Otto Modersohn’s "Wümme mit Booten" (estimate: € 12,000-16,000) Ernst Barlach’s "Ruhe auf der Flucht I" ["Rest on the Flight (to Egypt) I"] (estimate: € 12,000-15,000) will figure prominently in the Modern Art section along with works by such greats as Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, Willi Baumeister, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Otto Dix, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Klinger, Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, Piet Mondrian, Emil Nolde, Hermann Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, Serge Poliakoff, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Heinrich Zille.

Pre-sale viewings of all works are scheduled for the following dates, times and venues:
22-28March11 am-5 pm (except 25 Mar.)
29 March by appointment
Ketterer Kunst, Meßberg 1, Hamburg

Selected works will be shown:
12-14 March11 am-5 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Prinzregentenstr. 61, Munich and
17-19 March11 am-7 pm
20 March11 am-6 pm
Ketterer Kunst, Fasanenstr. 70, Berlin

Auction starts:
Modern Art 30 March 2006 at 4 pm
Post War31 March 2006 at 4 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 the 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 in each of 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, benefit auctions for charity and live auctions online are regular events at Ketterer Kunst.

Hamburg, March 14, 2007