A Fine Time for Contemporaries - Auction Week II at the Vienna Dorotheum, featuring modern & contemporary art, design, silver, art nouveau, and jewellery & watches

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele

Günther Uecker

Jörg Immendorff

John Chamberlain

Josef Hoffmann

Ettore Sottsass

In what promises to be a true feast for fans of all things contemporary, this year's second auction week at the Dorotheum, to be held from 26th to 30th May 2008, delivers a powerful payload of contemporary and modern art, ageless silver and art nouveau, jewellery and watches, as well as – for the first time – design.

The auction week kicks off with the silver auction on 26th May 2008, its focal point being a monumental ornamental kowsch, or vodka beaker, in the magnificent workmanship of Pawel Owtschinikow, supplier to the imperial court (valuation: € 100.000 – 150.000), followed, on 27th May 2008, by modern art classics from Austria and abroad. The latter auction includes a characteristically expressive work by Egon Schiele, a Seated Nude, the head inclined  („Sitzender Akt, den Kopf nach vorne gebeugt“ € 80.000 – 110.000) dating to 1913.

Additional highlights of Austrian provenance will be Carl Moll's town view „Rapallo, Piazza Cavour“ (€ 40.000 – 60.000), Alfons Walde's Farmhouse with Wilder Kaiser Mt. (€ 60.000 – 90.000) and Josef Dobrowsky's Harvest („Ernte“, € 35.000 – 50.000). In regard to the watercolour Nude („Stehender Mädchenakt“) by Oskar Kokoschka – currently at the centre of public interest both at the Albertina and the Belvedere – what a catalogue essay once had to say about his art from the nineteen-twenties still rings true: "He liberated human nature from the banality of the moment in order to give it a universal dimension". This particular work dates to 1921 and is valued at between € 70.000 and 100.000. The range of international modern art includes eye-catching works by Max Liebermann, Ferdinand Léger, or Wladimir Baranow-Rossiné, to name just a few.

Following the successful Dorotheum auctions in the autumn of 2007, the names Piero Manzoni and Günther Uecker will once again be a major presence at the upcoming auction week. At the auction of contemporary art on 28th May 2008, Uecker is represented by two of his nail objects – a White Spiral and an Untitled work using a tree trunk – while Manzoni contributes the ca. 1960 „Achrome“ in blue velvet, estimated at € 200.000 to 240.000. Another fascinating object by an Italian artist is Piero Dorazio's „Buon Anno“, coming from the estate of the architect and art theorist Bernard Rudofsky (€ 28.000 – 38.000). Jörg Immendorff's monumental bronze captures the grand gesture of a "Victor" („Sieger“, € 80.000 - 120.000).

Another contemporary sculpture comes from one of the pioneers of Pop Art, the North American artist John Chamberlain. In his metal sculptures, he lent a third dimension to the images of Abstract  Expressionism and he was also the first artist to come up with the idea of using scrapped car parts in his work. His „Sparkle Plenty“, a sculpture of painted steel/chrome dating to 1993, is valued at € 70.000 to 100.000.

Contemporary art is also going to present an unprecedented range of works by Chinese artists, who are becoming increasingly sought-after in the international art market, such as „The new World 747“ by Yuan Xiao Fang, as well as pieces by Wu Yunhua, Xiao Yan Xu, and Xiaofu Yu. In the Austrian category, the auction features a highly convincing two by three meter "Schüttbild" by Hermann Nitsch (1998, € 60.000 – 90.000).

'Contemporary art day', the 27th May 2008, continues to blow the fanfare for art nouveau, which has remained unaffected by the passage of time in many of its designs. Last year, a cufflink made by the goldsmith Karl Ponocny and designed by Josef Hoffmann for "Wiener Werkstätte" took the prize for the world's most expensive button after it was sold for € 55.000. This time round, the Dorotheum auction includes not just one but a pair of these extraordinary items (€ 50.000 – 70.000). The graceful figures of women by Demetre Chiparus are likewise know to achieve international top prices; his „Antinea“, a 67cm tall Art Decó beauty of bronze and ivory, is expected to sell for € 40.000 to 60.000. In addition, the auction also includes a Loetz vase by Josef Hoffmann as well as a wide selection of French glass, such as a collection of soufflé vases by Gallé, glasses by Daum, Lalique, and by Verrerie Schneider.

For the first time, the internationally highly regarded and very successful Dorotheum category of design will also be part of one of its auction weeks. On 29th May 2008, design classics from the fin de siècle to the present will vie with a particularly fine range of extremely rare lamps and vases from the nineteen-thirties to the present day. This selection for example features two mouth-blown, tri-coloured vases by Tom Dixon (€ 2.800 - 3.200), a „Spicchi“ vase by Fulvio Bianconi, Venini 1953, also produced in Murano (€ 3.500 - 4.000), as well as a number of rare Italian hanging lamps of the nineteen-fifties, a group of Gino Sarfatti lamps. The same auction also presents the Totems of Ettore Sottsass. These modern and colourful ceramic fetishes were originally conceived by the recently deceased Milanese artist back in 1964 but as recently as 1995/96, Bitossi produced four of them, ranging in height between 160 and 197 cm. (in an ed. of 10, € 55.000 - 75.000). Cutting-edge design, finally, relies on such brilliant names as Ron Arad, Danny Lane, Christian Astuguevieille, Franz West or Clemens Weisshaar-Reed.

Jewellery and wrist-watches bring the auction week to its conclusion on 30. May 2008. In a dazzling finish, it will present such alluring items as an eighteen-carat white-gold bracelet set with brilliants and pink sapphires (€ 13.000 – 20.000), a pair of white-gold pendant ear clips with brilliants and sapphires (€ 16.000 - 26.000), a Patek Philippe Calatrava gentleman's wrist-watch (€ 5.000 – 8.000), or a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso Gran Sport lady's wrist-watch (€ 9.000 – 13.000).

	Egon Schiele
	Günther Uecker
	Jörg Immendorff
	John Chamberlain
	Josef Hoffmann
	Ettore Sottsass
	Demetre Chiparus
	Piero Dorazio
	Oskar Kokoschka
	Danny Lane
	Presseinformation