1) POST WAR/Contemporary Art
2)Modern Art

on 1) POSTWAR/Contemporary Art
"Colors are a wonderful sound, music turned to light" said the Swiss artist and Poliakoff contemporary Johannes Itten. Whether it is because Serge Poliakoff had earned a living as a musician before he became a painter is hard to say, however, the renowned representative of the Nouvelle École de Paris lets the canvas of his oil painting "Composition abstraite orange jaune, vert, lie de vin" from 1964 vibrate. The bright color's rhythm and the slightly bent contours between the color fields make the work pulsate and both the composition’s harmony as well as it's optical resonance unfold.

Another work at the top of the list of desires will be the oil painting "Kopf (Elke Profil)" by Georg Baselitz. Made in 1977, the artist's best period of creation, the work could be admired in the museum in Mühlheim an der Ruhr as a loan up until a short time ago. Now it will find a new home with an estimate of € 200.000-300.000.

The oil painting "Peinture 81 x 60 cm, 2 mai 1957" by Pierre Soulages carries an estimaete of € 150.000-180.000. It is particularly captivating for its plain elegance and balance in terms of gesture and composition. The characteristic broad bars dominate the canvas and captivate the observer for both their actual dimension as well as their expressiveness.

Besides Tom Wesselmann's "Study for Nude Painting Print" from 1976, which will enter the race with an estimate of € 130.000-150.000, Pop Art is represented with works by Andy Warhol in "25 Cats name[d] Sam and one Blue Pussy" (c. 1954), which is his first artist book. A mere 150 copies were published. The estimate for this copy, which the cat lover Warhol gave to the graphic artist Walter Van Bellen along with a Siamese cat, is at € 90.000-120.000. Just as impressive is the work "Portrait of Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth" (1980), executed in silkscreen technique on a canvas colored in oil and acrylic. Thus the former owner of the german meat and sausage company Herta, who now exclusively produces organic food, joins the canon of illustrious personalities portrayed by Andy Warhol, celebrities such as Jackie Kennedy and Mick Jagger. The estimate is at € 80.000-100.000.

The range of offerings will be completed by works from the New Leipzig School (see press release from 4 April, 2012). Additionally, next to Ernst Wilhelm Nay's "Imagination in Gelb" and Tim Eitel's "Nacht" (estimate each € 90.000-120.000) works by Stephan Balkenhol, Eberhard Havekost, Gerhard Hoehme, Anish Kapoor, André Lanskoy, Adolf Luther, Markus Lüpertz, Shirin Neshat, Arnulf Rainer, Anselm Reyle, Emil Schumacher, Sean Scully and Victor Vasarely will also be called up.

On 2) Modern Art

This section is led by an extremely rare work by Vladimir Georgievich Bekhteev. The oil painting "Bogenschützen", estimated with € 250.000-350.000, was made around 1910 during his time in Munich. Strongly influenced by Art Nouveau, Bekhteev already hints at coming developments with a notion of Art Déco. His slightly mannered idea of man is contrasted with a landscape that works up influences of Cubism.

Gabriele Münter
Abend am See. 1916
Oil on canvas, 40,6 x 52,1 cm (15.9 x 20.5 in)
Estimate: € 220.000-280.000

Another top lot is Gabriele Münter's work "Abend am See" from 1916: Entering the race with an estimate of € 220.000-280.000, the work emanates something magical that is rarely found in the artist's oeuvre. At the same time the energetic stroke of the brush fills the surface's forms in Münter's characteristic color conception and adds the same validity of expression that we are familiar with from her very best works. Not less impressive is Münter's small oil painting "Staffelsee mit rotem Haus", which was made during her transition period in 1908, when the artist abandoned Impressionism and turned, as she put it, "to feeling content – to abstraction – to giving an extraction"*. The estimate is at € 90.000-120.000.

Georg Tappert's oil painting "Kauernder weiblicher Akt" might be obtainable for € 100.000-150.000. The artist, who was particularly fond of voluptuous female bodies, realized his idea of the female body in an almost exemplary manner. The nude pushed into a square and the model's entwined posture contribute to an optical effect that could not be more concentrated.

Emil Noldeis represented with not less than seven works, among which the landscapes in watercolors of his Northern Frisian homeland are particularly impressive. While his fulminant work "Marschlandschaft um Utenwarf (Bauerngehöft mit Abendhimmel)" will be called up with an estimate of € 120.000-150.000, the estimate for the "Südliche Abendlandschaft", which is particularly captivating through the intensive coloring of the purple night sky, is at € 80.000-100.000. With € 80.000-120.000, the work "Bauernhaus in Friesland" is just slightly above that.

In the field of sculptures two bronzes by Ernst Barlach ["Der Buchleser (Lesender Mann im Wind), estimate: € 50.000-70.000 and "Frau im Wind", estimate: € 18.000-24.000] and, first and foremost, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Katze" make for the highlights. The larch wood sculpture comes from the collection of the renowned Swiss architect and sculptor Erwin Friedrich Baumann, who was a close friend of the artist. The work carries an estimate of € 80.000-120.000.

Last but not least, Gustav Klimt's "Brustbild eines Mädchens im Profil nach rechts - Kniestück im Profil nach rechts" and Walter Gramatté's "Die große Angst" from 1918, both estimated at € 60.000-80.000 each, are worthwhile mentioning. The latter worked up the terrors of World War I that he went through in this work.

* transl. Of quote after Gabriele Münter 1877-1962. Retrospektive, ex. cat. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1992, unpag. p. 108