Lot 186 D

Bruno Goller's oeuvre is defined by enigmatic subjects which seem like relics from another time, featuring muted colour schemes and offering viewers diverse possibilities for associations. His “Ballspielende Mädchen” call to mind a frieze from a medieval illuminated manuscript or an ancient fresco. The extreme horizontal format is divided into four fields through the suggested depiction of coloured tent coverings and their wooden framework: in front of them, four girls in archaic robes throw a ball or hold it in their hands. Lined up one after the other, the players do not interact with each other; instead, they are isolated from one another, each captured in an individual moment of movement. Like the use of earthy tones of colour, the pictorial space's segmentation is characteristic of Goller's work from around 1950.
The painting is from the personal collection of Matthias T. Engels, a senior principal in what was then the new federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia who began purchasing works by regional artists in order to support young talents as well as artists persecuted under the Nazi regime. The purchases made by his Ministry of Culture culminated in the collection “Kunst aus Nordrhein-Westfalen”, which has been housed in the former imperial abbey of Kornelimünster since the mid-1970s.