From Actionism to Street Art: Young and Younger: Tercentenary Auction of „Contemporary Art“, 30th May 2007 at the Vienna Dorotheum

Mario Schifano

Bansky "Gangsta Rat"

Bansky "Christ with shopping bags"

On the occasion of the Dorotheum Tercentenary, both contemporary art and modern art will be presented in separate evening events.

Fernand Leger to Tancredi, Rainer Fetting to Andy Warhol – the tercentenary selection shines in the limelight of these and other artists' international calibre.

Italian art of the nineteen-fifties to nineteen-eighties has already brought success and world record sales to the Dorotheum on a number of previous occasions. For this particular auction, it was possible to acquire not only Mario Schifano's 1979/80 „Velo“ (Bicycle, € 35.000 - 45.000), but also several important Italian works of recent origin, such as the bronze „Il pane della storia“ by Mimmo Paladino (1988, € 30.000 - 40.000) or the bronze „Passo di Danza“ (Dance step) by Giacomo Manzù (1954, € 35.000 - 45.000). Luigi Veronesi is represented with „Vivace“ also created in 1954  (70.000 – 120.000 €).

As one of the foremost Constructivists of the 20th century, Victor Vasarely sought to visualise perception itself in his „Op Art“, a process for which the work with the title „Retze“ serves as an impressive example (1975/89, 110.000 – 170.000 €)

One particular highlight of this auction will be „Leopard in Bushes“, mixed technique with blood and ink on a gelatine silver print, by the Africa fan Peter Beard once referred to as a 'wild man' by Stern Magazine (35.000 – 45.000 €).

Who hasn't heard of him by know, one of the greatest among the unknown, Banksy, whose guerrilla art as a sprayer upset the London art scene? He believed in "15 minutes of anonymity" rather than Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" for everybody. Meanwhile, however, his works are picked up by celebrities such as Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, and Brad Pitt, and his graffiti art sells for astronomical sums. He himself, though, tries to smuggle his works into the Tate Gallery or the Louvre. Among other emblems, the rat has become associated with Bansky's work and one such animal, the „Gangsta Rat“ of 2004 (60.000 – 70.000 €) is part of the present auction's selection.

Another very expressive statement by the anonymous artist Banksy comes up for auction in the form of his „Christ with shopping bags“ (27.000-35.000 €), a highly contemporary work and of a topicality rarely seen at the Dorotheum so far.

Of course, the tercentenary would not be complete without some of Austria's finest contemporary artists, including one of Herbert Brandl's abstract mountain paintings, Untitled, portraying the artist's encounter with the phenomena of nature (€ 22.000 - 28.000), alongside outstanding works by Friedensreich Hundertwasser or Hermann Nitsch.

	Mario Schifano
	Bansky "Gangsta Rat"
	Bansky "Christ with shopping bags"
	Presseinformation