Anniversary public sale at Ketterer in Munich | EUROtoday

Wer feiert, will sich schmücken: Das Auktionshaus Ketterer in München tut es mit zwei bedeutenden Gemälden, die nach Jahrzehnten in Privatsammlungen in den Abendveranstaltungen vom 7. und 8. Juni versteigert werden sollen. Gerade rechtzeitig zum Jubiläum – gefeiert wird die Gründung des Hauses vor 70 Jahren – kam Alexej von Jawlenskys „Spanische Tänzerin“ ins Haus, ein farbgewaltiges Bild von musealem Rang. Entstanden 1909 stellt es womöglich Helene Nesnakomoff dar. Die junge Russin arbeitete als Haushaltshilfe für Jawlensky und seine Lebensgefährtin und Fördererin Marianne von Werefkin, war die Geliebte und spätere Ehefrau des Künstlers und Mutter seines Sohnes. Sieben bis zehn Millionen Euro soll das Werk einspielen, das sich fast neun Jahrzehnte in privater Hand befand.

Im Jahr 1954 eröffnete Wolfgang Ketterer, der bald nach Kriegsende mit seinem Bruder Roman Norbert das legendäre Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett gegründet hatte, seine eigene Galerie mit Verlag in Stuttgart. 1965 übersiedelte das Unternehmen nach München in die Villa Stuck. Drei Jahre später schwang Ketterer erstmals den Auktionshammer. 1989 wird die traditionsreiche, auf Bücher spezialisierte Hamburger Firma F. Dörling übernommen. Vor 30 Jahren übernahm Wolfgangs Ketterers Sohn Robert Ketterer die Geschäftsführung. Ihm gelang es, das Unternehmen zum Marktführer im Auktionshandel des deutschsprachigen Raums zu machen.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner has been a kind of house artist for the Ketterer clan since Roman Norbert Ketterer became the expressionist's estate administrator in 1954. Today, his descendants look after the artist's estate and archive in the Henze-Ketterer Gallery in Wichtrach, Switzerland. The evening auction in Munich, which includes seventy lots, now includes seven Kirchner works.

The second top lot of the auction is his “Dance in the Variety Show” from 1911. Kirchner was enthusiastic about modern dances and often made them his subject. Here he depicts the cakewalk imported from the American South. Exhibited for the last time in 1923 at Paul Cassirer's in Berlin, the trail of the painting, known only from a black and white image, was lost. Research has shown that in 1944 it passed from the former collection of the enamel manufacturer Max Gläser to the family of the current consignor, who can hope to make two to three million euros at the auction.

German Expressionism also shines in the offering with works by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Hermann Max Pechstein, Gabriele Münter and Franz Marc. The latter's watercolor “Two Yellow Animals” (estimate 200,000 to 300,000 euros) opens the event; this is followed by “Reclining Russi”, a picture of the artist's dog (300,000/400,000). Marc's influence on the younger Heinrich Campendonk, who is appearing in several auctions in different locations this season, is expressed in his large “Landscape with Animals” from 1913 (600,000/800,000).

Remarkable sculptures are contributed by Renée Sintenis with her “Great Daphne” from 1930 – estimated at 200,000 to 300,000 euros as an early lifetime cast – and Henry Moore with his abstract outdoor sculpture “Working Model for Sheep Piece” made of patinated bronze from 1971 (600,000/800,000, 6 copies). A year later, Georg Baselitz painted one of his upside-down birch trees with his fingers (800,000/1.2 million). In 1964, Gerhard Richter also painted his artist friend Günther Uecker in the style of a blurred photo in a small series of portraits for his first solo exhibition at the Alfred Schmela Gallery (450,000/650,000). Uecker, in turn, experienced his breakthrough at the same time with nailed pictures such as the white “Moving Field” from the same year (200,000/300,000).

Ketterer often achieves excellent prices with Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Nay's two-meter-wide disc painting “Ene mene ming mang”, composed in light colors in 1955, is estimated at 400,000 to 600,000 euros. The auction house set a world record last season for Konrad Klapheck. This time it's “The Technique of Conquest”, a confusing game with locks and keys (180,000/240,000).

Americans are trumping with large formats: Andy Warhol has one of the few completely preserved matching sets of ten colorful “Flowers” ​​sheets (800,000/1.2 million), and a “Playmate” from 1966 by James Rosenquist, which presents his bare breasts between strawberries and a cucumber on a five-meter-wide picture (1/1.5 million). The bridge to the public sale chapter of the nineteenth century is constructed by Max Liebermann's 1926 portray “Wannseegarten-Haus mit roten Stauden” (400,000/600,000), which exhibits the artist's villa behind magnificent flowers.