Egon Schiele
Liegender weiblicher Akt mit angezogenen Beinen
Gouache, watercolor and pencil, 1913
Estimate: € 300.000-400.000

Munich, 5 November, 2014, (kk) – A work from the oeuvre of Egon Schiele that has been unknown so far has appeared on the auction market. The unusual work has been in possession of a renowned German private collection since the 1970s and will now be called up in Ketterer Kunst's jubilee auction in Munich on 5 and 6 December.

The newly-discovered expressive composition by Egon Schiele from the early 1910s has just been registered in the archive Jane Kallir, New York and will be included into the yet unpublished appendix of the catalog raisonné. It is the impressive work on paper "Liegender weiblicher Akt mit angezogenen Beinen", one of the artist's eccentric nudes in which he used the paper's color as carnation and, together with the lucently accentuated color components in the margin, he created erotic tension of a very special kind.

Egon Schiele was enthusiastic about the linear surface style of Gustav Klimt and the Secession artists, who spoke out against the tight academic conventions of Historism and who fought for a harmony of art and life. Following this tradition, Schiele developed a style with which he put particular focus on the fragility of everything that is human. He approaches his model in such a direct manner that she seems shocking at first sight. While he views the model from a purely formal-aesthetic perspective on the one hand, he opens up an almost voyeuristic closeness with a look onto the most intimate situations on the other hand.

Accordingly, the "Liegende weibliche Akt mit angezogenen Beinen" is also characterized by what made Schiele's works from those days so special: a direct expression caused by the immediacy of the observation. The position of the depicted model can be seen both as squatting – when following the signature – as well as reclined, whereas the latter was the artist's preferred perspective.

The unusual work will be called up with an estimate of € 300.000-400.000.

Further highlights in the section of Modern Classics come from Otto Mueller ("Liebespaar/Sitzendes Zigeuner-Liebespaar", estimate: € 800.000-1.200.000), August Macke ("Unter den Lauben von Thun (Ein Spaziergängermotiv)", estimate: € 600.000-800.000) and Gabriele Münter ("Der blaue Berg", estimate: € 250.000-350.000 – see separate press release) as well as from Otto Dix, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Additionally, the separate catalog "Aus der ehemaligen Sammlung 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.

Next to Kazuo Shiraga's impressive oil painting "Chijikusei Gotenrai" (estimate: € 400.000-600.000), the section of Post War Art offers works by ZERO artists (e.g.: Günther Uecker "Weißer Wind", estimate: € 400.000-600.000) as well as masterpieces by Gerhard Richter, Martin Kippenberger and Andy Warhol, who is represented with an extra catalog (see separate press release).

The section of Contemporary Art showcases a cibachrome impression by Andreas Gursky ("Ayamonte", estimate: € 120.000-150.000) as well as works by, among others, Anselm Reyle, Tony Cragg and George Condo.

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