Great Success for Heinrich Kühn

The Photography auction was by far Lempertz’ most successful photography sale to date, crowned by a collection of 60 photographs by Heinrich Kühn (1866 -1944) - a rare as well as extraordinarily high-quality group of works which attracted national and international collectors as well as renowned museums.

The Photography auction was by far Lempertz’ most successful photography sale to date, crowned by a collection of 60 photographs by Heinrich Kühn (1866 -1944) - a rare as well as extraordinarily high-quality group of works which attracted national and international collectors as well as renowned museums. Great interest led to many notable price increases and to a result 80% above the total estimate. With this auction, Lempertz has established a new price level for Heinrich Kühn in Europe.

Heinrich Kühn. Sixty Photographs

The anomaly of this collection from South German private ownership lay in the unusual quality of the individual sheets, the scope and variety of subject matter as well as the perfection of the printing processes used, masterfully achieved by Kühn: platinum rubber prints, rubber and photogravure prints, oil prints, as well as the “Ölumdruck” (oil transfer print) he favoured many times. Kühn was concerned with the acknowledgement of photography as an art form of equal rank to painting; his photographs are of the impressionistic blur with which the ambitious art photographers at the beginning of the 19th century wished to set themselves apart from the ‘job photographers’. The most important motif groups which Kühn dealt with thematically - landscapes with people, still life, portraits, nudes - featured many times in the auction, including some of his well-known “tonal value studies” in which Kühn demonstrated the possibilities of an impression-faithful transference of the ‘seen’ onto a monochrome image.

The highlight of the Kühn collection was a still life with a carafe and a glass from 1911 which sold for 34,700 (lot 224, 6/8,000). Ms Mary, a platinum rubber print from 1908, was also very successful reaching 31,000 from an estimate of 8/10,000 (lot 216), whilst a portrait of Alfred Stieglitz (lot 205, 15/20,000), a Tonwertstudie (lot 215, 6/8,000) and Frauentorso im Sonnenlicht (lot 245, 4/5,000) all rose up to 22,300 euro.

Photography

Complementing the Heinrich Kühn photographs, a further pictorialist highlight featured in the regular auction: from Hans Watzek, Kühn’s early deceased partner and artist friend, we were offered a mountainous landscape created in 1900. Once owned by Kühn, the photograph was sold to the German trade for 19,800, several times the estimate (lot 14, 3/4,000).

A further top lot of the auction was a group of important photographs of newly erected architecture of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany, including three broad-ranging group lots of probably the most famous building exhibition of the time. The twelve vintages of the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart from 1927 reached 14,900 (lot 30, 6/8,000), whilst the photography group lot of the exhibition "Damerstock-Siedlung. Die Gebrauchswohnung" in Karlsruhe went from 8/10,000 up to 29,800 (lot 31).

One of the “fotoform” members, Ludwig Windstosser, offered a group of 18 industry shots for the “Mannesmann” works in its original portfolio from the 1950s. In excellent condition, they eventually sold to an Italian collector for 23,600 (lot 64, 14/16,000). Photographs by the Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank are rarely seen on the German-speaking market. The shot “Elevator - Miami Beach” was one of 83 motifs which Frank chose for his legendary photography book “The American”. Acquired directly from the photograph, the later print changed hands for 34,700 (lot 80, 30/40,000). Otto Steinert’s vintage “Die Lampen der Place de la Concorde 3” from 1952 rose from 9/12,000 to 23,600 (lot 63).

Contemporary Art + Photography

Featured amongst the contemporary photography were classic works by the members of the “Dusseldorf School”. One highlight of the auction came from Andreas Gursky: the C-print "Schwimmbad Ratingen" from 1987 sold for 49,600 (lot 635, 18/22,000). A large-format figure from the “Nudes” series by Thomas Ruff reached 22,300 (lot 814, 15/20,000), whilst one of the library shots as a medium-format print from a six-part edition by Candida Höfer from the 1990s experienced an impressive increase, with an American collector fighting against strong competition to eventually acquire the work for 52,100 (lot 816, 8/10,000). 

The Korean photographer Kim In Sook also saw remarkable results. Two large-format works from her well-known series of night shots of house facades, including a lightbox, reached 34,700 and 32,200 (lot 645/646, 25/30,000 and 30/40,000).

Captions

Heinrich Kühn Miss Mary. (Lot 216)

Gum dichromate over platinum print on Japan paper, flush-mounted to laid paper.

29,3 x 23,3 cm (29,8 x 23,8 cm).

Estimate: €8,000 - €10,0oo.

Result: €31,000.

 

Heinrich Kühn Untitled. (Lot 224)

Gum dichromate over platinum print on Japan paper, flush-mounted to laid paper.

23,1 x 29,3 cm (23,6 x 29,7 cm).

Estimate: €6,000 - €8,000.

Result: €34,700.

 

Otto Steinert Die Lampen der Place de la concorde. (Lot 63)

Vintage or early ferrotyped gelatin silver print.

24 x 34 cm.

Estimate: €9,000 - €12,000.

Result: €23,600.

 

Robert Frank Elevator - Miami Beach (from the series: The Americans) (Lot 80)

Gelatin silver print, printed before 1989.

22,9 x 33,3 cm (27,7 x 35,5 cm).

Estimate: €30,000 - €40,000.

Result: €34,700.

 

Andreas Gursky Schwimmbad Ratingen. (Lot 635)

Chromogenic print on Kodak paper.

37 x 50,3 cm (40,5 x 50,8 cm).

Estimate: €18,000 - €22,000.

Result: €49,600.

 

Candida Höfer Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève Paris II.

(Lot 816)

Chromogenic print. 59,7 x 59,9 cm (85,2 x 85,2 cm).

Estimate: €8,000 - €10,000.

Result: €52,100.

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