Duerckheim Collection

For For For For ImmediateImmediateImmediateImmediate ReleaseReleaseReleaseRelease

Press Release London

London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Matthew Weigman | [email protected] Simon Warren | [email protected]

SpekulatiusSpekulatiusSpekulatiusSpekulatius by Georg Baselitz (b. 1938), oil on canvas, signed, titled, by Georg Baselitz (b. 1938), oil on canvas, signed, titled, by Georg Baselitz (b. 1938), oil on canvas, signed, titled, by Georg Baselitz (b. 1938), oil on canvas, signed, titled, numbered numbered numbered numbered 24 24 24 24 and datand datand datand dated ed ed ed 65656565 on the reverse (162.7 by 132cm.) on the reverse (162.7 by 132cm.) on the reverse (162.7 by 132cm.) on the reverse (162.7 by 132cm.)

Estimate: Estimate: Estimate: Estimate: £1.8£1.8£1.8£1.8----2.5 million2.5 million2.5 million2.5 million****

Sotheby’s To Present for SaleSotheby’s To Present for SaleSotheby’s To Present for SaleSotheby’s To Present for Sale ‘‘‘‘The DuerckheimThe DuerckheimThe DuerckheimThe Duerckheim CollectionCollectionCollectionCollection’’’’

-------- The Most Significant Collection of The Most Significant Collection of The Most Significant Collection of The Most Significant Collection of Contemporary German Art of the 1960s and 1970sContemporary German Art of the 1960s and 1970sContemporary German Art of the 1960s and 1970sContemporary German Art of the 1960s and 1970s

Ever To Come To Auction Ever To Come To Auction Ever To Come To Auction Ever To Come To Auction --------

---- This This This This ccccomprehensive omprehensive omprehensive omprehensive ccccollection of German ollection of German ollection of German ollection of German aaaart comes to market after decades away rt comes to market after decades away rt comes to market after decades away rt comes to market after decades away frofrofrofrom public view and includes masterful works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter m public view and includes masterful works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter m public view and includes masterful works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter m public view and includes masterful works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter

and Sigmar Polke, and Sigmar Polke, and Sigmar Polke, and Sigmar Polke, aaaamong mong mong mong oooothers. It is estimated in thers. It is estimated in thers. It is estimated in thers. It is estimated in eeeexcess of £3xcess of £3xcess of £3xcess of £33333 million million million million ––––

LONDON,LONDON,LONDON,LONDON, TTTTUESDAYUESDAYUESDAYUESDAY 26262626 APRILAPRILAPRILAPRIL,,,, 2011201120112011 ------------ SOTHEBY’S IS HONOURED to announce that it will offer for sale

ThThThThe Duerckheim Collectione Duerckheim Collectione Duerckheim Collectione Duerckheim Collection, a collection of the most significant and defining German Art of the 1960s and 1970s

ever to come to market, in the forthcoming Contemporary Art Auction Series in June. This collection represents a

remarkably detailed and complete survey of major advancements in the recent history of European art and features

the most important assemblage of 1960s paintings by Georg Baselitz in private hands; an outstanding history of

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Gerhard Richter's early Photo-paintings; and notably rare and early works by Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo, Konrad

Lueg, Jörg Immendorff and Eugen Schönebeck, among others. The offering is also particularly remarkable for the

outstanding quality and exceptional condition of the individual pieces. Together, these works provide a very special

anthology to an era of momentous change in Germany and the radical aesthetic and conceptual advancements that

became so seminal in shaping the course of art history in the 20th century. These 59 artworks, which have not appeared

on the market for over 30 years, are expected to realise in excess of £33 million and will be offered in the

Contemporary Art Evening and Contemporary Art Day Auctions on Wednesday, June 29, 2011Wednesday, June 29, 2011Wednesday, June 29, 2011Wednesday, June 29, 2011 and Thursday, Thursday, Thursday, Thursday,

June 30, 2011June 30, 2011June 30, 2011June 30, 2011.

Discussing this extraordinary collectDiscussing this extraordinary collectDiscussing this extraordinary collectDiscussing this extraordinary collection of German Art, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s ion of German Art, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s ion of German Art, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s ion of German Art, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s HeadHeadHeadHead of of of of

Contemporary Art Europe, commented:Contemporary Art Europe, commented:Contemporary Art Europe, commented:Contemporary Art Europe, commented: “Presenting this definitive collection of German Art of the 1960s and 1970s

for sale at auction is a great privilege for Sotheby’s. Historical perspective, extensive scholarship and renowned

international exhibitions have long proved the enormous contributions to art history made by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard

Richter and Sigmar Polke. To see masterpieces by these artists alongside works by their peers Blinky Palermo, Jörg

Immendorff, Konrad Lueg and Eugen Schönebeck gives an insight into German Art of the 1960s which has not been seen

in London since the 1985 landmark exhibition “German Art of the 20th Century” at the Royal Academy. The exhibition at

Sotheby’s will bring these museum quality works together in public for the first time and the auction will be an exciting

crescendo to the story of the Duerckheim Collection.”

The Collector The Collector The Collector The Collector Count Count Count Count Christian Christian Christian Christian DuerckheimDuerckheimDuerckheimDuerckheim----KetelhodtKetelhodtKetelhodtKetelhodt::::

Count Duerckheim started collecting German contemporary art in 1970 after seeing a “Hero” print by Baselitz which

was used to illustrate the first edition of “ZET”, a publication for literature and graphic works. This marked the

collector’s ongoing fascination with the work of Baselitz and initiated an intense period of collecting in the 1970s and

early 1980s during which Count Duerckheim was able to compile a complete survey of the art of his generation. He

recalls feeling that he should have started buying the works at the time of their execution in the 1960s and therefore

made a conscious effort to collect the artist’s earlier work which was fortunately still available. The ensemble is a

resounding testament to his vision and the overall coherence of the collection demonstrates Count Duerckheim’s

expert understanding, curatorial intelligence, judgment, connoisseurship and passion. It features art historically

important pieces, which look back to a period when artists such as Georg Baselitz, Eugen Schönebeck, Gerhard

Richter and Sigmar Polke had moved from East Germany to West Germany and it has since become an in-depth

archive of German Art from the 1960s and early-1970s. Together they represent the new beginnings that so

fundamentally altered the course of the visual arts from the dawn of the 1960s onwards. The inaugural exhibition of

highlights from this collection will be staged at Sotheby’s New York from May 6th until May 9th and represents the first

time an international exhibition of this museum-quality collection will be on view to the public in over 30 years.

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Highlights in the Collection:Highlights in the Collection:Highlights in the Collection:Highlights in the Collection:

One of the major highlights of the auction will be Georg Baselitz’s oil

on canvas Die Grosse Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down the Drain),

executed in 1962-63., which is the most important German work of art

of the post war period to come to the market. It is the sister painting to

a work of the same title housed in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne

(Ludwig donation), and when that painting was unveiled in 1963 at the

artist's first solo exhibition and the inaugural show of Michael Werner

and Benjamin Katz's gallery in West Berlin, the Ludwig painting was

confiscated by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the grounds of

"infringement of public morality", and the artist and gallerists were

fined. It is widely recognised as the genesis of the artist's entire

illustrious canon, directly anticipating later series such as the 'Hero'

paintings, and related works are held in the world's most prestigious

collections, such as a 1963 watercolour of the same title that was included in the Royal Academy exhibition (cat no. 37)

and is now in MoMA (gift of R. L. B. Tobin, 1987). Executed when Baselitz was around 24 years old, Die Grosse Nacht

im Eimer (illustrated above) was inspired by a newspaper article about an Irish poet, Brendan Behan, who gave a

reading of his poetry drunk on stage with his trouser flies open. For the artist Die Grosse Nacht im Eimer represents the

ultimate provocation, which he of course considers the ultimate and inevitable purpose of his painting. At the press

conference for the Baselitz Remix exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna in 2007 the artist declared that "My first

painting, my first attempt at painting, was 'The Big Night Down the Drain'", and in the 2007 Royal Academy

retrospective catalogue Norman Rosenthal observed that "The artist recently stated in public that perhaps he never has

and never will make a finer painting than The Big Night Down the Drain.". The work is estimated at £2-3 million.

From this most important private archive of 1960s paintings by Georg Baselitz in existence, another principal highlight

is his oil on canvas Spekulatius (illustrated on page one), executed in 1965 and measuring 162.7 by 132cm, which is

emblematic of the artist’s celebrated ‘Hero’ series**. The painting, which is estimated at £1,800,000–2,500,000, stands

as one the most significant masterworks both of the series and of the revered artist’s entire illustrious career. It belongs

squarely at the centre of the seminal series of 'Hero Paintings' or ‘New Types’ that were executed between 1965 and

1966. As is exemplified in this painting, the vanquished, depleted protagonists in this cycle are survivors in a devastated

post-war Germany, whose tragic isolation invokes the specific heritage of German Romanticism from Goethe to

Caspar David Friedrich. Created by the artist in his mid-twenties and living in the German capital newly segregated by

the Berlin Wall, Spekulatius is directly comparable to examples of the cycle that are now housed in the Tate Gallery in

London and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek. Furthermore, the ‘Hero’ paintings have achieved

three of the top four prices for the artist at auction, including the record price of $4,633,000 at Sotheby’s New York on

14th May 2008.

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Another important work by Baselitz in the collection is his oil on canvas

Das Idol (illustrated right), measuring 100.3 by 81.7cm, which carries an

estimate of £600,000–800,000. Executed in the year following the

erection of the Berlin Wall and the remarkable creation of a 26 year old,

Das Idol of 1964 confronts the viewer as a searing existential vision of

imagery that is without precedent.

Headlining the works in the collection by Sigmar Polke is his Dschungel, of

1967 and measuring 160 by 245.5cm, which is estimated at £3,000,000-

4,000,000. By far the largest of the artist’s legendary Rasterbilder (dot

paintings) from the 1960s ever to appear for public sale, this painting has

been virtually unknown since its execution and only reproduced in black and white. This monumental tableau is a

masterful paragon of Polke’s attempt to deconstruct the illusions and paradoxes of painting, and is one of his most

important works. In the context of Pop Art and Kapitalistischer Realismus, this masterpiece questions the mechanics of

the art of painting and shares the rebellious attitude inherent to Pop Art.

The work of an exceptional 26 year old

who had moved to West Germany from

the East in 1953, where he was to win the

Young German Art Prize and have his

first solo shows in Berlin and Düsseldorf

immediately prior to this work in 1966.

However, his student career, spanning

1961 to 1967 at the Kunstakademie

Düsseldorf, was paramount in shaping

his immensely dynamic approach to art.

In 1963 with his friends Gerhard Richter

and Konrad Lueg, Polke initiated the quasi movement Kapitalistischer Realismus that, in its title alone, was a pithy

riposte to the state-sponsored 'Socialist Realism' of the GDR. Their first exhibition was entitled Life with Pop - A

Demonstration for Capitalist Realism: clearly these young men saw art as a means to effect political and social ends.

Initiated during this formative period, the Rasterbilder works not only critique issues of perception and reality in a

media-obsessed world but also challenge global methods of communication as agents of social change. Having been

born in the abysmally dark shadow of Nazism, Polke had lived on both sides of a divided Germany that was the

crucible of the Cold War. Hence he knew extremely well the manipulative power of the media and the potential of

propaganda.

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A further highlight by Polke is his oil and dispersion on canvas

Stadtbild II (illustrated right), signed and dated 68 on the reverse, 151

by 125.5cm, which is estimated at £2,000,000–3,000,000. The work

showing the New York skyline is a brilliant crescendo of Polke’s late-

1960s output, revealing fascinating parallels and developments in his

use of media and treatment of subject matter.

A triumph of Gerhard Richter’s ground breaking 1960s Photo-

painting, Telefonierender stands as the epitome of both cerebral and

painterly innovation that characterised the artist’s output of this

period. The work exemplifies his inimitable technique and

historically significant approach to source material. Executed in 1965

on an impressive scale (70 by 130cm.) and via exquisite technical accomplishment, this is an historic work that will

remain central to the genesis of Richter’s remarkable contribution to visual culture. Telefonierender represents a

moment when Richter’s ambition had advanced

beyond simply a European riposte to the advent of

American Pop, and had developed into an

independent, highly-sophisticated philosophy.

Although Richter’s original source image for

Telefonierender, illustrated left, is a newspaper

clipping of an anonymous man engaged in the

quotidian action of speaking into a telephone, his

painterly manipulation of the man’s features transforms his specific anonymity into a more encompassing, general

facelessness.

A readily feasible identification of Richter’s unknowable

protagonist is Elvis Presley, with whom the Man on the Phone

bears a striking resemblance. The tonal topography and

composition of Telefonierender has been dramatically blurred

by the artist’s feathering of the wet paint surface with a fine dry

brush to inscribe thousands of horizontal furrows in a

consummate exhibition of sfumato brushwork. With the present

work Richter exposes the false autonomy and supposed

objectivity ascribed to photography and challenges his audience

to question and re-evaluate their perception of contemporary

media. The work is estimated at £2-3 million.

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Further works by Richter in the collection comprise the artist’s

provocative oil on canvas Schwestern (illustrated on previous page), dated

1967, measuring 65.3 by 65cm., which is an exemplary model of his

appropriation of found imagery (est. £1,200,000–1,800,000); and his oil

on canvas 1024 Farben (illustrated left), dated 1974, numbered 356/3,

measuring 96.3 by 96.2cm (est. £1,000,000–1,500,000). Finally the sale

will offer the second work recorded in Richter’s legendary catalogue

raisonné, his oil on canvas Eisläuferin, which was previously believed to be

destroyed (est. £2,000,000–3,000,000).

Additional major works in the collection include:Additional major works in the collection include:Additional major works in the collection include:Additional major works in the collection include:

Eugen Schönebeck B.1936 Bildnis signed, titled, and dated 1964 on the reverse oil on canvas, 162 by 129.8cm. Estimate: £300,000 – 400,000

A. R. Penck (b1939) Systembild

signed with the artist's Initial oil on canvas, 129.5 by 99cm.

Estimate: £150,000 – 200,000

Blinky Palermo (1943 – 1977) Untitled, 1968-70 cotton, 200 by 200cm. Estimate: £500,000 – 700,000

Konrad Lueg (1939– 1996) Mann am Tisch

casein on canvas, 110 by 180cm,

Estimate: £200,000 – 300,000

Notes to EditorNotes to EditorNotes to EditorNotes to Editor::::

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium **Georg Baselitz: six paintings on this subject that have achieved six successive record auction results for the artist during a period

of over twenty years.

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