Munich The large two-part design work “The Gates” by the wrapping artist Christo was one of the last lots in Ketterer’s evening prize fireworks last week. When the idea, fixed with charcoal pencil, chalk and oil paint, of the fluttering orange cloths in New York’s Central Park for the Christo project “The Gates” was auctioned for almost three quarters of a million euros (all prices including premium), auctioneer Robert Ketterer was there the year went well again.
The work does not belong to the impressive round of the six million sales of the “Evening Sales”, which only has 63 lots, but it is one of the major sales drivers. Once again, Ketterer is number 1 among German auction houses with its overall annual balance sheet: 15 times in 2021 the house achieved sales in the seven-figure range, 151 results were in the six-figure range.
The modern and contemporary art auctions in July and December, the auctions of books and art of the 19th century, as well as the permanent online only auctions raised gross sales to 88 million euros. Nobody else in Germany can do that, only the Swiss colleagues Kornfeld and Koller advance to these lofty heights.
The highlight of the December auction was undoubtedly Albert Oehlen’s monumental, multi-layered triptych. Applause broke out in the hall when, after a long struggle, a collector from the Benelux region slammed the three panels for 3.6 million. Ketterer had not previously sold any work of art in this price range.
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Until now, the German auction market has shown no more than low six-figure prices for the energetically and wildly painted pictures by the Cologne artist, according to art Genealogie.
The double portrait fetched 206,250 euros. Not a lot of classic modernism was spurned.
(Photo: Kettererkunst)
Oehlen’s work from 1988, which a German company had submitted, could be a further indication of the shift in the market due to Brexit. As long as the movement of goods to Great Britain went smoothly, the paintings by the painter, who was born in 1954, were worth millions, and were immediately shipped to London. “
Brexit and its bureaucratic hurdles are influencing the behavior of the consignors and have given us a boost, ”said Robert Ketterer in an interview with Handelsblatt. And refers to another of the surprising surcharges of the evening.
Estimated at 700,000 euros, Pierre Soulages’ profound, black painting “Peinture 92 x 65 cm, 3 août 1954” was passed on to a French prospect for an impressive 2.2 million euros. “The painting was already ‘one leg in London’ before the owner decided on Munich,” says Ketterer.
The estimate of 2.5 to 3.5 million was probably too demanding. The painting will be taken over by a Swiss collection for 2.9 million euros.
(Photo: Kettererkunst)
On the other hand, there was disappointment in their faces when the bids for Alexej von Jawlensky’s colorful, expressionist “Woman’s Head with Flowers in Her Hair” from 1913 faltered. The estimate of 2.5 to 3.5 million was probably too demanding. The painting, which goes to Switzerland for a gross price of 2.9 million euros, has been in the family’s possession for 100 years. And it made art history.
A sticker on the reverse from the Commeter Gallery refers to the painting’s Hamburg station during the major traveling exhibition of Jawlensky works in 1920/21 across Germany’s best galleries. The auction house sold it as a great find. In fact, it has been hanging in the Moritzburg Museum in Halle / Saale for a few years.
Ketterer’s ambition to give German Expressionism a strong market impetus in the country of its origin with this expressive work was unsuccessful. His comment: “Even with the top pieces, the air upwards is often very thin”. Nonetheless, the market did not disdain a lot of classic modernism, which with mostly six-figure estimates made up around a third of the offer.
The result of 2.2 million euros for Emil Nolde’s impetuously painted “box tree garden” corresponded to expectations with 2.2 million euros. The painting, which marked Nolde’s path to Expressionism, was not returned to the heirs of the Nazi-persecuted collector Ismar Littmann until 2021. It took the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg 22 years to do this.
But the expressionist market is erratic. Erich Heckel’s atmospheric but harmless “Erzgebirge Landscape” from 1914 climbed from an estimated 300,000 to an astonishing gross 960,000 euros. The consignor of Gabriele Münter’s “Mountain Landscape with a House”, on the other hand, had to put up with a loss of around 200,000 euros. Bought four years ago for 560,000 euros in the same house, the 1910 painting now fetched only 412,000 euros. The consignor has a little more than 300,000 of these.
Despite the downside of Jawlensky, this auction remains a cornucopia of records and top prices with only four declines. Sean Scully’s earthy color field painting “Blue, Yellow Figure” from 2004 achieved 1.3 million euros. Katharina Grosse’s brightly colored abstraction from 2005 broke all previous records and ultimately cost 500,000 euros.
Record also for the expressive lifetime cast of Georg Kolbe’s bronze “Javanese dancer, for which a Berliner had to put in 649,000 euros. The relief image “Superficie bianca” Enrico Castellanis, created in 1971 in line with the ZERO idea, jumped from an estimated 180,000 euros to a gross of 420,000 euros. Cy Twombly’s scriptural pencil drawing “Untitled (Drawing for manifesto of Plinio)” from 1967 quickly left its estimate of 250,000 euros behind and brought in 600,000 euros.
One of the small watercolors from the “Colmar IV” series is shown. It came to 890,000 euros (excerpt).
(Photo: Kettererkunst)
More than 30 million euros were raised that evening alone. Ketterer’s December auction showed that the German art market is competitive on a global basis. His new, ambitious strategy is obvious. In its evening auction, Ketterer offered 35 percent fewer lots, but was able to raise the average price per object sold considerably. In the spring it was 290,000 euros, this time it is 470,000 euros, according to Robert Ketterer.
The proportion of German artists from Max Liebermann and Ernst Wilhelm Nay to Jörg Immendorff and Neo Rauch continues to dominate, but the number of international names has grown noticeably. You don’t have to make acquisitions either in the USA or in France. Works by Alex Katz, Yoshitomo Nara, but also Cy Twombly are slumbering in German and Central European collections, as they were traded for years by Berlin, Cologne and Munich gallery owners.
While Robert Ketterer is applying the slogan “less is more” to the auction industry with a streamlined top range, he has expanded manpower. With Nicola Countess Keglevich and Sebastian Neußer, two experienced art managers joined the executive suite, responsible for customer service in the top segment. Countess Keglevich was one of the top managers at Sotheby’s Germany, Sebastian Neußer has many years of international art market experience in the Michael Werner gallery.
With this, Ketterer has expanded its network to include important collections. “Everyone brings a new spirit and new approaches,” says Robert Ketterer with certainty. According to a press release by the company, the acquisition of the 2.9 million Jawlensky head was Countess Keglevich’s debut. The bar is set high for the future.
More: Koller Auctions: Under the hammer in Switzerland: millions in prices not only for paintings