HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE NEXT AUCTION
18 NOVEMBER 2023
GALLERY OPENING HOURS
FRIEDRICH VIKTOR SPITZER (1854–1922)
Gustav Klimt, Vienna 1906
Photogravure 38,4 x 27,4 cm, with facsimile signature of Gustav Klimt
Estimate: 25.000–30.000 €
Friedrich V. Spitzer was a chemist with a doctorate, industrialist and amateur photographer, he had already been a member of the London "Linked Ring" since 1892 and of the Vienna Camera Club since 1897. He belonged to the circle of pictorialists around Heinrich Kühn, Hugo Henneberg and Hans Watzek and, like them, experimented with various print techniques. His portraits of artist friends appeared only in very small editions, including the present photograph of Gustav Klimt. The painter is wearing one of his legendary linen coats and is sitting in his studio in Josefstädter Straße in a fauteuil made of rosewood with geometric inlays designed by Josef Hoffmann and executed by the Wiener Werkstätte (the furniture is now in the Leopold Museum). The composition is of extreme precision in the balance of light and dark values as well as the geometry of the picture, and at the same time shows the main representative of Art Nouveau in expressive characterisation, to which the staging of the hands also contributes. Compared to the Klimt portraits of Moriz Nähr and Madame d'Ora, this photogravure is unknown and most probably unique.
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Motion study, Vienna 1925
Photogravure, printed in 1928, 23,4 x 17,4 cm
Estimate: 5.000–6.000 €
The "Movement Study" is probably Koppitz's most famous work, which he printed in various techniques and was sold as far away as America. Members of the dance troupe of Claudia Issachenko, the mother of choreographer Tatyana Gsovsky and linguist Alexander Issachenko, served as models. One dancer poses as a nude in a strong backbend in front of three dark-robed colleagues. Their heads, positioned close to each other, form a flat arch that bounds the figure arrangement at the top; below, their pairs of feet, aligned in the same direction, form a horizontal row. Koppitz perfected this carefully structured composition with a closed outline through negative retouching.
ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ (1894–1985)
'Satiric Dancer', Paris 1926
Gelatin silver print, 35,3 x 28 cm, signed, titled and dated "Paris 1926"
Estimate: 3.200–3.800 €
After a decade as a young photographer in his native Hungary, Kertész moved to Paris in 1925. It was here that he took his famous photograph of the dancer Magda Förstner in the Montparnasse studio of the sculptor Beöthy, also from Hungary. The contorted pose of Magda in a short halter dress on the sofa between two of his sculptures became an icon of modern photography. The steep camera angle and the chosen lens enhance the whimsical effect of the picture, which was published in 1927 by the Berlin leisure magazine "Die Dame" to illustrate a parable about marital infidelity. After many publications, the picture received its current title in the 1960s.
AUGUST SANDER (1876–1964)
'Handlanger' (Bricklayer), Cologne c. 1928
Gelatin silver print, 59 x 44 cm
Estimate: 10.000–12.000 €
Under the title "Antlitz der Zeit" (Face of Time) and with a foreword by Alfred Döblin, August Sander first published sixty photographs of his legendary portrait cycle in 1929. The picture atlas is divided into seven sections devoted to different professions or social groups. A sober presentation is intended to stimulate comparative observation and aims at a photographic social analysis of the Weimar Republic. As one of the main representatives of Neue Sachlichkeit, Sander became a pioneer of conceptual photography.
GÜNTER BRUS (*1938)
'Strangulation', Vienna 1968
Vintage silver print, 30 x 30 cm, Photographer: Ludwig Hoffenreich (1902–1975). Signed in ink by Günter Brus
Estimate: 20.000–30.000 €
In December 1968, Brus held an action in his flat together with his wife Anni, which was documented by two 16mm film cameras as well as photographically. Ropes were attached to the upper frame of the flat door, from which Brus let himself hang upside down, his wife tied to the floor. The print offered here a unique vintage print; it served as a master copy for the poster, also part of this lot, announcing his last action "Zerreißprobe" in 1970, which took place in Berlin. Brus said about this drastic performance, that after that he only had the choice of "killing himself in front of the public or changing" (since then he has devoted himself to his graphic and literary work).
REN HANG (1987–2017)
Untitled, China 2010s
Chromogenic print, 67 x 100 cm, mounted on Alu-Dibond, in perfect condition. Original white wooden frame with museum glass, signed, annotated, numbered "1/10"
Estimate: 14.000–16.000 €
Ren Hang's analogue photographs, taken with a simple 35mm film camera, which he always used to present untitled and without date in his shows, tell of relationships and friendships or of fear and loneliness. Young women and men pose naked with animals and flowers as props. In unusual arrangements and poses, the bodies appear as something abstract, sculpturally formable. At once provocative and aesthetic, humorous and poetic, the artist, who died at an early age, reflected China's urban youth culture, which yearns for individual freedom and ideological liberty.
WERNER BISCHOF (1916–1954)
In the Andes, near Cuzco, Peru 1954
Gelatin silver print, 60 x 50 cm,. Magnum's "In our Time" exhibition blindstamp, "Werner Bischof Estate” copyright stamp with facsimile signature of the photographer's son Marco Bischof
Estimate: 7.000–9.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (1908–2004)
Srinagar, Kashmir 1948
Gelatin silver print, 51 x 61 cm, photographer's stamp on the reverse
Estimate: 6.000–7.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
JOSEF KOUDELKA (*1938)
Czechoslovakia, 1967
Gelatin silver print, 60 x 50 cm, Magnum's "In our Time" exhibition blindstamp, signed by the photographer
Estimate: 8.000–10.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
RENÉ BURRI (1933–2014)
Che Guevara, Havana, Cuba 1963
Gelatin silver print, 50 x 60 cm, signed by the photographer
Estimate: 7.000–9.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE NEXT AUCTION
18 NOVEMBER 2023
FRIEDRICH VIKTOR SPITZER (1854–1922)
Gustav Klimt, Vienna 1906
Photogravure 38,4 x 27,4 cm, with facsimile signature of Gustav Klimt
Estimate: 25.000–30.000 €
Friedrich V. Spitzer was a chemist with a doctorate, industrialist and amateur photographer, he had already been a member of the London "Linked Ring" since 1892 and of the Vienna Camera Club since 1897. He belonged to the circle of pictorialists around Heinrich Kühn, Hugo Henneberg and Hans Watzek and, like them, experimented with various print techniques. His portraits of artist friends appeared only in very small editions, including the present photograph of Gustav Klimt. The painter is wearing one of his legendary linen coats and is sitting in his studio in Josefstädter Straße in a fauteuil made of rosewood with geometric inlays designed by Josef Hoffmann and executed by the Wiener Werkstätte (the furniture is now in the Leopold Museum). The composition is of extreme precision in the balance of light and dark values as well as the geometry of the picture, and at the same time shows the main representative of Art Nouveau in expressive characterisation, to which the staging of the hands also contributes. Compared to the Klimt portraits of Moriz Nähr and Madame d'Ora, this photogravure is unknown and most probably unique.
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Motion study, Vienna 1925
Photogravure, printed in 1928, 23,4 x 17,4 cm
Estimate: 5.000–6.000 €
The "Movement Study" is probably Koppitz's most famous work, which he printed in various techniques and was sold as far away as America. Members of the dance troupe of Claudia Issachenko, the mother of choreographer Tatyana Gsovsky and linguist Alexander Issachenko, served as models. One dancer poses as a nude in a strong backbend in front of three dark-robed colleagues. Their heads, positioned close to each other, form a flat arch that bounds the figure arrangement at the top; below, their pairs of feet, aligned in the same direction, form a horizontal row. Koppitz perfected this carefully structured composition with a closed outline through negative retouching.
ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ (1894–1985)
'Satiric Dancer', Paris 1926
Gelatin silver print, 35,3 x 28 cm, signed, titled and dated "Paris 1926"
Estimate: 3.200–3.800 €
After a decade as a young photographer in his native Hungary, Kertész moved to Paris in 1925. It was here that he took his famous photograph of the dancer Magda Förstner in the Montparnasse studio of the sculptor Beöthy, also from Hungary. The contorted pose of Magda in a short halter dress on the sofa between two of his sculptures became an icon of modern photography. The steep camera angle and the chosen lens enhance the whimsical effect of the picture, which was published in 1927 by the Berlin leisure magazine "Die Dame" to illustrate a parable about marital infidelity. After many publications, the picture received its current title in the 1960s.
AUGUST SANDER (1876–1964)
'Handlanger' (Bricklayer), Cologne c. 1928
Gelatin silver print, 59 x 44 cm
Estimate: 10.000–12.000 €
Under the title "Antlitz der Zeit" (Face of Time) and with a foreword by Alfred Döblin, August Sander first published sixty photographs of his legendary portrait cycle in 1929. The picture atlas is divided into seven sections devoted to different professions or social groups. A sober presentation is intended to stimulate comparative observation and aims at a photographic social analysis of the Weimar Republic. As one of the main representatives of Neue Sachlichkeit, Sander became a pioneer of conceptual photography.
GÜNTER BRUS (*1938)
'Strangulation', Vienna 1968
Vintage silver print, 30 x 30 cm, Photographer: Ludwig Hoffenreich (1902–1975). Signed in ink by Günter Brus
Estimate: 20.000–30.000 €
In December 1968, Brus held an action in his flat together with his wife Anni, which was documented by two 16mm film cameras as well as photographically. Ropes were attached to the upper frame of the flat door, from which Brus let himself hang upside down, his wife tied to the floor. The print offered here a unique vintage print; it served as a master copy for the poster, also part of this lot, announcing his last action "Zerreißprobe" in 1970, which took place in Berlin. Brus said about this drastic performance, that after that he only had the choice of "killing himself in front of the public or changing" (since then he has devoted himself to his graphic and literary work).
REN HANG (1987–2017)
Untitled, China 2010s
Chromogenic print, 67 x 100 cm, mounted on Alu-Dibond, in perfect condition. Original white wooden frame with museum glass, signed, annotated, numbered "1/10"
Estimate: 14.000–16.000 €
Ren Hang's analogue photographs, taken with a simple 35mm film camera, which he always used to present untitled and without date in his shows, tell of relationships and friendships or of fear and loneliness. Young women and men pose naked with animals and flowers as props. In unusual arrangements and poses, the bodies appear as something abstract, sculpturally formable. At once provocative and aesthetic, humorous and poetic, the artist, who died at an early age, reflected China's urban youth culture, which yearns for individual freedom and ideological liberty.
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (1908–2004)
Srinagar, Kashmir 1948
Gelatin silver print, 51 x 61 cm, photographer's stamp on the reverse
Estimate: 6.000–7.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
WERNER BISCHOF (1916–1954)
In the Andes, near Cuzco, Peru 1954
Gelatin silver print, 60 x 50 cm,. Magnum's "In our Time" exhibition blindstamp, "Werner Bischof Estate” copyright stamp with facsimile signature of the photographer's son Marco Bischof
Estimate: 7.000–9.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
RENÉ BURRI (1933–2014)
Che Guevara, Havana, Cuba 1963
Gelatin silver print, 50 x 60 cm, signed by the photographer
Estimate: 7.000–9.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set
JOSEF KOUDELKA (*1938)
Czechoslovakia, 1967
Gelatin silver print, 60 x 50 cm, Magnum's "In our Time" exhibition blindstamp, signed by the photographer
Estimate: 8.000–10.000 €
From the original "In our Time" exhibition set