25/09/2001
by James Goulder

Coinciding with this year’s Berlin "Art Forum", the auction house Ketterer Kunst will be presenting its fifth contemporary art auction in the city entitled Perspective 45/01– Contemporary Classics. Bravely continuing the auction in the present financial climate might be a risk, but the quality of works on offer and the low to medium estimates should provide enough impetus for collectors to part with their money. In this the fourth year of partnership with the Dresdner Bank, the auction will take place in the Rotunda of the Dresdner Bank, Pariser Platz next to the Brandenburg gate, on the 8^th of October.

With over 75% of the 251 lots on sale devoted to editions and works on paper there is a wide range of artists, images and sizes available, including works from important printing presses to artists’ "nik-nak’s". From the few paintings on offer the following are worth noting. Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild, an oil on canvas from 1983, has an estimate of $ 42,500-56,500 (€ 46,000-61,350); Fred Thieler’s März 63 is estimated at $ 33,000-42,500 (€ 35,500-46,000); Hermann Nitsch’s Schütt-Bild mit Malhemd, an acrylic, oil and painter’s shirt on burlap, 200 x 300 cm, estimates at $ 16,500-21,250 (€ 17,895-23,008); Gleichgewicht des Schreckens, a mixed media with tempera, airbrush, colour stencils and scratching on board from 1982 by Gottfried Helnwein has an estimate of $ 9,500-10,375 (€ 10,225-11,248); and, an early acrylic on canvas, entitled Dog facing woman, sized 60 x 70 cm, by Marlene Dumas is estimated at $ 3,000 (€ 3,323).

The best feature of the sale has to be the high standard of editions available. For example estimated at $ 2,125 (€ 2,300), a portfolio entitled Grace Kelly with 5 sheets in colour silkscreen, sized 50 x 34 cm, (number one of an edition of 90) by Imi Knoebel is on offer. Similarly, a portfolio with four monochrome silk-screens from 1970 by Blinky Palermo is available. The works each sized 60 x 60 cm, and in an edition of 90, were edited by Gallerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich and together carry an estimate of $ 5,661-7,000 (€ 6,135-7,669). Francesco Clemente’s Conversion to her from 1986, an aquatint etching on vellum paper, sized 95 x 110 cm (in an edition of 40) is estimated at $ 1,800 (€ 1,942). Also of note is a unique untitled monoprint with applied colour from a screen matrix by Bruce Nauman. Printed by the titans of contemporary editions Gemini G.E.L, Los Angeles in 1994, this work, sized 81 x 82 cm, is estimated at $ 5,661-7,000 (€ 6,135-7,669).

Of the young German photographers Wolfgang Tillmans, Thomas Ruff and Andreas Gursky are well represented. John and Paula and Cornel, Zurich 1993, two colour c-type prints, from 1994 by Turner prize winner Tillmans are both estimated at $ 5,661-7,000 (€ 6,135-7,669). An early cibachrome print sized 40 x 30 cm, Ohne Titel, from 1988 by Andreas Gursky is on offer with an estimate of $ 6,600-7,000 (€ 7,158-7,669). Also an interesting gelatin silver print from 1994, 27 x 26 cm, by Thomas Ruff has an estimate of $ 2,600 (€ 2,812) entitled Torre de televisao, Brasilia. At first look it appears like a document on the artist’s background as a Becher pupil, but the atmospheric sky denies the influential teacher’s extreme interest in total and objective reality. Another photograph by Ruff is 12 H 23-30 degrees – a cibachrome enlargement from a black and white negative of the now highly sought after "sky series", dating from 1991 and measuring 38 x 38 cm. It has an estimate of $ 1,180 (€ 1,278). A photograph by Dutch Rineke Dijkstra from her recent Berlin series entitled Tiergarten Berlin, July 1999 carries the estimate of $ 4,250-5,200 (€ 4,601-5,624). Measuring 29.8 x 23.8 cm the work should prove popular with German collectors not only due to the current importance given to the artist but also due to the local subject matter.

Yoko Ono’s patinated bronze sculpture Painting to hammer a nail in appears for the first time at auction. Developed in the early sixties at the infamous Indica gallery, London, the artist exhibited the wooden board, sized 51 x 34 x 10 cm, painted white, to which she attached a hammer hanging on a chain. Visitors to the gallery were invited to hammer nails into the board - thus completing Ono’s work which she then preserved in 1988. The estimate is $ 20,100-25,500 (€ 23,000-28,100). Another curiosity is a fan in a box dating from 1987 by British duo Gilbert and George. Signed on the reverse with a portrait of the artists, the fan, measuring 23 x 42.5 cm, is entitled Death after life and has an estimate of $ 1,320 (€ 1,431).