Otto Mueller
Liebespaar / Sitzendes Zigeuner-Liebespaar
Distemper on burlap, around 1920
114,5 x 89,5 cm (45 x 35.2 in)
Estimate: € 800.000-1.200.000

Munich, 28 October, 2014, (kk) – The jubilee auctions on December 5 and 6 make for the grand finale of the company's anniversary year. Masterpieces with estimates in 6-digit realms by renowned artists such as August Macke and Egon Schiele, as well as by Kazuo Shiraga and Günther Uecker are some of the highlights of this auction which has the following sections:

1) Modern Classics
2) Post War
3) Contemporary Art

on 1) Modern Classics
This section is led by the true museum piece "Liebespaar/Sitzendes Zigeuner-Liebespaar" by Otto Mueller, estimated at € 800.000-1.200.000. This subject, which seems to be the artist's key to his desires, surely counts among the most important themes of his oeuvre. It is the incarnation of the dream of happiness in its most immaculate form.

Happiness will also be the state of mind of the future owner of August Macke's gouache "Unter den Lauben von Thun (Ein Spaziergängermotiv)". The work, estimated at € 600.000-800.000, originates from his best period of creation, it was made in 1913, the year the artist and his family moved to Hilterfingen on Lake Thun in Switzerland, where he found new orientation and was free from all constraints. He succeeded in rendering this new feeling on paper so much that artistic documents of his time in Thun are among the best of his entire oeuvre.

Other impressive works come from artist's such as Egon Schiele and Alexej von Jawlensky. While the first seduces art lovers with his "Liegender weiblicher Akt mit angezogenen Beinen" (gouache, watercolor and pencil; estimate: € 300.000-400.000), the latter will add splendor with his "Variation: Frühling" (estimate: € 120.000-160.000). Next to sought-after works such as Georg Tappert's "Kauernder weiblicher Akt" (estimate: € 80.000-100.000) and Dorothea Maetzel-Johannsen's oil painting "Akte" (estimate: € 70.000-90.000), which counts among the extremely rare figure compositions from the artist's expressionist period, works by such acclaimed artists such as Ernst Barlach, Albert Birkle, Otto Dix, Dodo (that is Dörte Clara Wolff), Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Paul Kleinschmidt, Oskar Kokoschka, Georg Kolbe, Emil Nolde and Gabriele Münter will make for excitement in the auction room. Pablo Picasso is represented with both original graphic works, as well as with select ceramics.

Additionally, the separate catalog "Aus der ehemaligen Sammlung Laaff" ("From the former collection Laaff") offers more than 30 works by, among others, Conrad Felixmüller ("Der Maler Otto Schubert und Frau", estimate: € 100.000-150.000), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Robert Michel, Max Pechstein, Franz Radziwill, Josef Scharl and Georg Schrimpf.

on 2) Post War
The top spot in this section is occupied by Kazuo Shiraga's oil painting "Chijikusei Gotenrai". The large-size foot painting from 1961 is among the most sought-after works by the Japanese native on the international auction market. For this technique the artist hangs on to a rope fastened to the ceiling and disperses oil paint with his feet over a piece of paper on the ground. Impressed by the positive feedback of his first foot painting performance in an Osaka gallery in 1957, he began to work on canvas in the same technique as of 1959, laying the basis for his international breakthrough. The large-size work has been estimated at € 400,000-600,000.

After world record prices have been realized by works of Günther Uecker ("Hommage à Fontana", result: € 1.260.000) and Heinz Mack ("Erzengel Michael und Gabriel", result: € 317.000) in spring, the focus is turned on ZERO art once more. Uecker will enter the race with more than half a dozen works, among them the work "Gebrochen", estimated at € 250.000-350.000, which is not only impressive for its dimensions. While Mack enhances the array of finest art with almost a dozen objects, first and foremost with his early "Schlitz-Relief" (estimate: € 60.000-80.000), Otto Piene, the third of the bunch, convinces not only with his untitled lucent yellow oil painting that has been estimated at € 80.000-120.000, but also with more than a dozen other lots with estimates in four- or five digit realms.

Next to several works by Gerhard Richter, who is represented with, for instance, one of his popular abstract creations from the late 1980s (estimate: € 80.000-120.000) and Martin Kippenbergers "Rausland" (estimate: € 140.000-180.000), works by Karl Otto Götz, Victor Vasarely and, of course, Andy Warhol (see separate press release on the special auction) will be called up.

on 3) Contemporary Art

The range of offerings in this section, which had its debut with an own catalog last autumn and also realized great results in this year's spring auction, has meanwhile been expanded. This is where Andreas Gursky's cibachrome print "Ayamonte" astonishes the observer. The large-size color composition, estimated at € 120.000-150.000 resembles a sophisticated painting, as it reveals the aesthetic intricacies of a photography only at a closer look.

Other top lots are Anselm Reyle's mixed media work "Ohne Titel (for Otto Freundlich)", Tony Cragg's bronze "Knot (Early Forms)" from 1997, as well as George Condo's "Multicoloured woman" (each estimated at € 40.000-60.000).

Auction in Munich
05 December     Modern Classics
06 December     Post War / Contemporary Art as well as special catalog Andy Warhol