Contemporary Art - Liberation Of The Colour

Highlights of the auction include works by Andy Warhol(€ 286,000), Gotthard Graubner (€ 338,000), Gerhard Richter (€ 169,000 and € 143,000), A.R. Penck (€ 286,000), Anselm Kiefer(€ 156,000) and Emil Schumacher (€ 143,000). Two canvases by William Nelson Copley, an artist whom Lempertz has sold with great success in past years, each reached € 104,000.

At the pinnacle with € 338,000, invested by a German private collector, was Gotthard Graubner’sRufus from 1992/1195. The work impressively illustrates the optical depth that goes hand in hand with the physical depth of Graubner's colour-space bodies. Since the 1960s, Gotthard Graubner has devoted himself with great stringency to the intrinsic qualities and embodiment of colour. Colour forfeits any mediating function as a tool of representation; the artist liberates colour from almost any confinement as well as providing it with spatial depth as a comprehensive space for development. Colour becomes its own independent organism upon which the artist takes as little influence as possible (lot 29, € 250/300,000).

Grace Kelly is a unique silkscreen from a series of 20 differing colour variants by Andy Warhol from 1984. The present work is illustrated in the catalogue raisonné of Warhol’s graphic works. A collector living in Monaco needed to extend to € 286,000, considerably above the estimate, to acquire the work (lot 40, € 140/180,000).

Also selling for € 286,000 was A.R. Penck’s canvas Geben und Nehmen from the year 2005, and which has now passed to a German collection. Letters and images within the picture dominate the large format picture, also numerous stick figures operate assiduously and are interrelated by arrows pointing to each other. The artist has created a tableau that appears to recount creativity and bustle, its energy reaching across the entire picture plane. By means of three primary colours on a white background, Penck created an emblematic world using a linear visual vocabulary typical of his work. A world that seems easily accessible, whose symbolism and references, however, are never clearly decipherable for the viewer (lot 52, € 100/150,000).

Gerhard Richter’s paper work 3.3.89 from 1989 is a wonderful example of the convergence between Richter's exploration of the grey as mirror, base colour and field, in which to lose oneself. The grey is skilfully placed as the starting point of this work. The viewer realises the masterful application of the dark shading at the top and accents of lighter shades – almost white – towards the lower half. Almost as if to give us just the glimpse of this monochromatic shading behind a veil of yellow and orange. A South German collector won the picture for € 169,000 (lot 26, € 130/150,000). The canvas Blech from 1988 sold far above its estimate to a further German private collector for € 143,000 (lot 5, € 60/80,000). Great success was seen for Anselm Kiefer’sJakobs Traum from 2004 which sold for € 156,000 (lot 15, € 60/70,000), whilst Emil Schumacher’s painting B-5/1971 from 1971 has moved to a German collection for € 143,000 (lot 59, € 80/90,000), and a further work by the artist, Blanco, was taken on by the German trade for € 78,000 (lot 60).

Four paintings were offered by William Nelson Copley, an artist Lempertz has sold with great success for a number of years. At the top were Baby Bonnet from 1971, and Bob it, created seven years later. In the solo exhibition “Recent paintings: Nouns” held in the New York Alexander Iolas Gallery in 1971, William Copley presented a work series featuring large-format everyday objects in front of strongly coloured backgrounds or in abstract spatial situations. With its intense visual presence, Baby Bonnet is also an extraordinarily important painting for the artist, which has now moved to an Italian collection for € 104,000 (lot 21, € 80,000). Also selling for € 104,000 was Copley’s Bob it. The painting consolidates a large part of William Copley's classic visual vocabulary. In an environment determined by grey blocks of stone and the chequered tiles of a prison cell, he illustrates a scandalous and unlawful story involving a naked couple – the man still wearing the obligatory bowler hat – an accusing priest, a policeman, a guillotine, and a small dog (lot22, € 80,000).

In 2009, Herbert Brandl created the large format untitled painting which has now been acquired by a German collector for € 94,000 (lot 72, € 40/50,000). Joseph Kosuth’s A.A.I.A.I., an enlarged photograph on aluminium from 1967, has changed ownership for € 65,000 (lot 11, € 40/60,000). Norbert Bisky reached € 81,000 with Wir spielen Luftangriff, painted in 1971 (lot 1, € 40/60,000), whilst Rupprecht Geiger’s canvas 359/62 from 1962 sold for € 75,000 (lot 3, € 40/50,000).

The most successful lot of the photography selection was Bernd and Hilla Becher’s 1971 vintage shot Zeche Zollern II (lot 361, € 7/9,000) which changed hands for € 28,500.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 0221/92 57 29–30.

Edgar Abs
Press and public relations
Cologne, December 2021