Impressionist & Modern Art
Watercolours and paintings by Egon Schiele, Albin Egger-Lienz, Rudolf Wacker, Franz Sedlacek, along with fine examples from the oeuvres of Umberto Boccioni, Erich Heckel, Otto Mueller, Gabriele Münter and Anton Birkle are a feature of the upcoming autumn auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at im Kinsky. Expressive drawings such as a female nude by Schiele, a sitting girl by Heckel and the rare subject of five nudes by Mueller from 1910 are contrasted with highly charged still lifes by Rudolf Wacker and Franz Sedlacek and deeply heartfelt paintings of the Madonna by Egger-Lienz and Josef Floch. Also worthy of attention is a very interesting watercolour by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, which uses very coded iconography in its presentation of two female nudes with a cat. It was painted in the 1920s during his years in Davos where the artist experimented with solid areas of paint while retaining his powerful colours.

Alfons Walde is once again represented by a painting of outstanding quality titled Bauernsonntag: an allegory of power, closeness to nature and country life encapsulated in pictorial form.

Art Nouveau & Design
The jewellery created by the Wiener Werkstätte has always been legendary for creating timeless combinations of luxurious, very often intensely coloured materials, and subtly designed, ornamental, architectural shapes. Once again, Kinsky is able to present one of the most sought-after pieces of jewellery by Josef Hoffmann. Ottor Prutscher was, like Hoffmann, an architect, designer and sensitive craftsman. His glasses are also uniquely elegant and are highly valued by collectors. In autumn, an entire set of liqueur glasses are coming to auction.

Mosaic has been in use for thousands of years and went through a renaissance in 1900 with the Arts and Crafts movement and Wiener Werkstätte. One of the most important artists employing this technique was Leopold Forstner, who opened the first workshop of the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna in 1906 and produced large numbers of mosaics for churches, such as Otto Wagner Kirche in Steinhof, public buildings, such as Dianabad in Vienna and the frieze by Klimt at the Stoclet Palace, based on works by famous artists but also on his own designs. He was famous for his method of cementing ceramic and glass in mosaics, to produce new colours and light effects. The upcoming auction is presenting numerous items from the artist’s estate, any of which would be exciting additions to any collection of Modern art.

Contemporary Art
The wide and diverse range presented by this department is again being split into two catalogues to be auctioned in the afternoon and evening.

We are very pleased able to present a selection from the private collection of the charismatic museum director Dieter Ronte! The former director of the Museums of Modern Art in Vienna, Hanover and Bonn was already collecting as a student, and as a prominent speaker at exhibitions and auctions he was always at the cutting edge and always in close contact with artists. The most important masterpiece from the collection is a large painting by Maria Lassnig from 1983: “Herbstbild / Herbst” [Autumn Scene / Autumn], a newly discovered forgotten work and a significant addition to her important body of work. The diverse nature of the collector’s interests is reflected in works acquired from Christo, Joseph Beuys, Günther Uecker, Markus Lüpertz, and the Austrian painters Max Weiler, Oswald Oberhuber and Gugging Artists.

There is an embarrassment of riches at im Kinsky with another painting by Maria Lassnig from 1994, a three-part, eloquent sequence of paintings of Lassnig’s forms. Some other highlights of the auction are two important works by Max Weiler, along with watercolours and sketches from various periods of his work. Durchblick durch blaue Gegend [View of Blue Surroundings] from 1975 and Blaue Bäume und Purpurhimmel [Blue Trees and a Purple Sky] from 1973, are exceptional masterpieces that display Weiler’s advanced understanding of colour and impressively document his vision of landscape.

The international importance of Austrian sculpture is emphasised by works by Fritz Wotruba and a large sphinx by his student Josef Pillhofer. We are presenting works by two of the main exponents of Italian Arte Povera, Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz, works from the very sought-after series, “Alphabets” and a large work on canvas from the 1980s. The most important Austrian exponent of reduced painting and member of ZERO, Hans Bischoffshausen, is represented by the almost mythical, dark “Materialschlacht” [war of attrition] and numerous works on paper.