Contemporary Art - Trust Lust
At the top of the offer stands Donald Judd with a sculptural work for € 500,000 and a canvas by Copley which saw a steep escalation to € 213,000. A bidder had to stretch to € 119,000 for “Mein Kölner Dom, Wrapped” by Christo, whilst a bid of € 94,000 was successful for a small painting by Gerhard Richter.
The high point of the two-day auction of Contemporary Art with € 500,000 invested by the European trade was Donald Judd’s “Half Solid Tube Piece” from the year 1990. Donald Judd started working on his large box-shaped plywood objects at the beginning of the 1960s. By being placed directly on the ground, they formed a direct connection to the surrounding space, their block-like character broken open by a half pipe-shaped opening on the top. They are painted entirely with cadmium red - a colour tone to which the artist attributed particular importance. According to the artist, the light, bright red is the only colour which makes the real dimensions and the sharp-edged contours of the cubic objects precisely visible (lot 142, € 400/500,000).
William Nelson Copley was represented by two works including the 163 x 138 cm untitled work (“Trust Lust”) from 1989. A German collector eventually prevailed against stubborn competition with € 213,000 (lot 198, € 80/120,000).
Christo’s drawing “Mein Kölner Dom, Wrapped“ from 1992 was purchased by a German collector for € 119, 000 (lot 188, € 100,000). Gerhard Richter was – as always at Lempertz – represented by many works. The greatest success was seen by a small 20 x 27.4 cm canvas “Blech” which was taken on by a Japanese museum for € 94,000 (lot 123, € 60/80,000).
“The Valve” by Roy Lichtenstein from 1954 sold to the Austrian trade for € 88,000 (lot 114, € 70/80,000), whilst Donald Sultan’s 2014 sculpture in lacquered aluminium on a polished steel base went to Portugal for € 81,000 (lot 170, € 50/60,000).
The three-part canvas “Sway in warm light” by Julian Stanczak from 1998 was acquired by a German collection for € 75,000 (lot 214, € 60,000), and Hans Hartung’s 1973 acrylic on card picture “P1973-B16” realised € 62,000 (lot 102, €40/60,000). A. R. Penck (lot 199) reached € 50,000, Paul Thek (lot 176) €54,000, and Günter Fruhtrunk € 63,000 for a work from 1962 (lot 212).
The most successful photographic work with a result of € 40,000 was “Industriebauten”, a portfolio of 10 gelatine silver prints from 1968 which sold to the London trade (lot 143, € 18/20,000).
Further works were sold under reserve:
- A bronze by Joannis Avramidis for € 175,000 (lot 111)
- Karel Appel’s painting “Nue” from the series of female nudes from 1961 for € 225,000 (lot 155)
- Marcel Broodthaer’s nine-part work “Gestalt-Bild-Abbildung” for € 400,000 (lot 179), and his sculptural work “Socle” for € 119,000 (lot 178).