Gerhard Richter’s Grün-Blau-Rot (1993), which is estimated to sell for between €200,000 and €300,000 ($218,00–$327,000).
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Whether you’re buying art in the interest of investment, collecting, or interior decorating, minimalist pieces have a rare appeal. Steering away from the figurative work that defined previous periods in art history, post-1945 Italian, German, and Austrian pieces grapple with the metaphysical. From November 24 to 26, Austria-based auction house Dorotheum will offer for sale a superior collection of modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures from masters including Lucio Fontana and Gerhard Richter. The highlights of this collection are sure to make a valuable addition to any serious collection.
Antithetical to the more expressive Tachism movement prevalent in Europe during the 1950s and 1960s, Lucio Fontana’s glazed ceramics from the Concetto Spaziale series display formal and aesthetic interests that are surprisingly relevant to contemporary design ideals. Smaller pieces from this series will be available at price points starting at €40,000 (about $43,500) and going upward to €300,000 ($326,200) or more.
Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale, Natura (1967), which is estimated at €25,000 to €30.000 ($27.500–$33,000).
Works by other important Italian artists influenced by Fontana, including Paolo Scheggi, Enrico Castellani, and Agostino Bonalumi, add value and variety to the catalogue of Italian art for sale by Dorotheum this November. Gino de Dominici’s Asta in equilibrio, expected to fetch between €80,000–€120,000 ($87,000–$130,500), rounds out the collection by highlighting the Italian fascination with immortality, negative space, and the invisible.
Several pieces by German master Gerhard Richter, inarguably one of the most important contemporary artists, will be offered with starting bids ranging from €200,000–€400,000 ($217,400–$434,900). Dorotheum will provide a unique opportunity to acquire works in his iconic abstract style, including Abstrakts Bild, 713-3 and Green-Blue-Red.
In recent years, interest in German art of the late 1950s and 1960s has skyrocketed. Recently, the Guggenheim mounted a dedicated exhibition to the ZERO group, founded in 1959 by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. Pieces from this movement have sold at auction for record-breaking prices in the past decade, and the ones offered for sale in Dorotheum’s auction should be no exception. Works by ZERO founders Mack and Piene, as well as Adolf Luther, will be on the auction block later this month, affording collectors a unique opportunity to add work from this movement to their private collections.
Prior to the contemporary sales on November 25 and 26, the November 24 Modern Art auction will offer a glimpse into the precursors to postwar contemporary art with important Futurist works and other modern pieces. All three sales will take place at 6 P.M.