While Berlin celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berliner painter Norbert Bisky reflects back upon his own personal experiences during those last eventful years of the GDR. Bisky’s 2001 work “wir schlagen zurück II” (EUR 40,000–60,000) refers directly to that horizon of a country, which was then more than ever searching for collective identity. Bisky plays with imagery mostly related to socialist-idealizing propaganda art. Through this visual language he delivers an unmistakable commentary on past eras of German history which, despite their sunny exterior, could in no way fulfill their promises of salvation.
Stefan Balkenhol has always had a very distinctive approach that breathes new life into figurative sculpture. His “Mann mit schwarzem Hemd und weißer Hose auf grünem Sockel,” 2016 (EUR 65,000–85,000) which was placed right at the entrance in the foyer of last year’s Kunsthalle Emden, welcoming guests with a confident, skeptical look, will also come under the hammer.
The works coming from the most significant German figurative painters are elective affinities of their own kind. Thus, Markus Lüpertz – whose major show can be seen at the moment at the Münchner Haus der Kunst – work “Triumph der Linie” (1977, EUR 35,000–45,000) will be seen alongside Norbert Schwontkowski’s “Ella” (2006, EUR 10,000–15,000), which can currently be seen at the Kunstmuseum in Bonn. Lüpertz’ fine sense for the mythological meets the obscure visual world of Norbert Schwontkowski, in which the artist creates idiosyncratic forms of haziness.
On the other hand, in the midst of Pop Culture, there are two iconic works be Isa Genzken (“Weltempfänger” EUR 25,000–35,000) and Thomas Bayrle (“ELVIS”, 1995. EUR 30,000–40,000). Isa Genzken went live in 1992 when she placed an old radio set on a white pedestal at the Venice Biennale, and the Documenta in Kassel, and declared it a work of art.
With his “Weltempfänger” Thomas Bayrle might have heard a lot of Elvis, in any case the artist, born 1937, offers a dynamic homage to his hometown Frankfurt. At the end of the 50’s, Frankfurt was characterized by its intellectual culture – the FAZ, the Frankfurter Rundschau, the sociology of the Frankfurt School of thought – but also by the ever present American GI’s, and the hype around that hip-swinging American rock star, whose completion of military service at Taunus was a big hit in the media.
Condensed into abstraction, and at least as intense, the works of the internationally acclaimed painter Katharina Grosse (lot 710, 711, 839) and her former teacher Gotthard Graubner (lot 754, 29*), focus on the medium of colour itself – and will be rounding off our Autumn collection. The common starting point of both artists is the powerful belief in the timeless, existential power of colour, which has an immediate transmission on the viewer and becomes a physical experience.
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* From our auction “Selected Works” on 28 November, 6 p.m.