This sale will take place on the first day of Contemporary Week at the Dorotheum in Vienna, which runs from November 26 to 29. The focus is mainly on contemporary and modern art, with 150 artworks up for auction. In addition, there will be jewelry and watch sales supplementing the main event.
One of the key pieces in the modern and contemporary sale is Egon Schiele’s artistic manifesto, written in 1911 and slightly modified three years later. The four-page manuscript testifies to Schiele's artistic self-awareness and his ideas regarding the concept of art, which makes this item a unique collecting opportunity for every enthusiast of the outstanding Expressionist.
For collectors who are more visually inclined, Schiele’s gouache Woman with Arms Raised may be a temping work. He painted it in 1914, a year which represented a turning point in the life of the artist both privately, economically and artistically.
Another piece by Schiele is the watercolor Girl Laying Sideways with a Raised Skirt. Dating from 1912, this work comes from the wilder phase in Schiele's career, in which the artist had to cope with frequent rejection.
An unusual composition is Oskar Kokoschka's Still Life with Centaur - Il ratto della bella Elena from 1949. In the foreground a plate of fruit underlines the erotic character of the painting with its allusions to Greek mythology. On the right, the beautiful Helena is taken up in the arms of a centaur, possibly symbolizing Troy. On the left are Helena’s parents, Leda and Zeus in the form of a swan, in a close embrace.
Through Alfons Walde’s skillful representation of shadow and light, one can almost feel the cold Alpine sunlight in Tyrolean Village Road in Winter. Walde painted the work in 1934, in the village of Aurach near Kitzbühel. Besides Walde, other notable artists featured in the sale include Gustav Klimt, Giacomo Balla and Alberto Giacometti.
The jewelry sale on November 27 transports bidders to the Austrian imperial court. Two pieces of jewelry belonging to Archduchess Marie Valerie, the youngest daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, are offered by her descendants.
The tiara and the corsage brooch, both set with diamonds and oriental pearls, were made around 1890 by court jeweler A. E. Köchert. That same year, Marie Valerie married her third cousin Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria-Tuscany.
The auction of contemporary art is very international and will be divided into two auctions on November 27 and 28. The work with the highest current estimate is Piero Manzoni's Achrome, made from sewn canvas squares. In his ‘acromatic’ works of art Manzoni deliberately renounces any manipulation, so that the unadulterated surface can speak for itself.
The viewer’s perception is also the focus of Lucio Fontana's work, but he took a different approach in his Concetti Spaziali. In 1964 he created his backdrop series Teatrini, and Fontana himself regarded Concetti Spaziali as the highlight of all the works.
"Make something that nobody has created before you – beware of imitating others," was the motto of the artist association Gutai, founded in Osaka in 1959. Gutai’s members implemented this mantra in their works through intensive study, self-reflection and spirituality. One of the most significant among them was Kazuo Shiraga, who occasionally preferred to paint his paintings with his feet rather than with his hands.
Brushstroke I is a sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein, a format the artist regularly employed although he is best known for his two-dimensional works in his typical comic style. Made of cherry wood and coated in acrylic paint and varnish, only 10 copies of the wall relief were ever made.
The Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry discovered his love for marble in 1979, and he began his work on Via Crucis in the 1980s. As always, with his marble sculptures Atchugarry was guided by the forms hidden in the material and strove to work them out harmoniously and emphasize the play of light and shadow.
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This article is sponsored by Dorotheum