The 20th Century in Spotlight

On 9 May, auction house Kunst & Design Schops Turowski is taking us on a beautiful journey through the 20th century. The 600 lots in their catalogue include categories as varied as painting, design, sculpture, antique furniture, silverware, jewellery and the decorative arts.

Carrier of revolutions and innovations, the last century has seen the emergence of numerous artistic movements and trends, although some took root at the end of the 19th century. This is the case for Art Nouveau, with its rounded shapes and ornaments inspired by flora and fauna, which swept across many fields, such as architecture, illustration and the decorative arts. Among the greatest representatives of Art Nouveau is the Russian house Fabergé, which distinguished itself with traditional creations, as with this silver rococo crystal decanter from 1894.

Finding the 1900s, the Belgian architect, designer and artist Henry van de Velde designed this padouk wood and leather chair using the trendy shapes of the time. Van de Verde is considered one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement in his country.

Then comes the most influential school of the 20th century, the Bauhaus, which counted among its students and its teaching staff the great Marcel Breuer. He is represented here with this aluminum deckchair model 1097, designed in 1933. This copy is a larger (and rarer) version of model 1096 imagined by Breuer in Switzerland.

Scandinavian design is not to be outdone: it imposed itself from the 1900s with classic pieces of furniture that are timeless and highly sought after by collectors today. Here we find the Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto and his model 403 chair with its natural materials and simple shapes, and also known as the Hallway Chair.

An object as charming as it is original is this double wrought iron door by Edgar Brandt, made between the 1930s and ‘40s. Brandt, one of the most important craftsmen of the 20th century, adorned his creation with motifs drawn from fables of Aesop and de La Fontaine. In 1947, the door was installed in an apartment in The Hague, and also seems to have adorned the entrance to a nursery school in Marseille.

On the ceramic side, the works of Lucie Rie and Hans Coper deserve a special mention: both arrived in England in the late 1930s and they have often been compared because of their close association. Coper, who first started as Rie's assistant after the war, soon developed his own style though and founded his workshop in the 1950s.

Extravagance, pop colours and geometric shapes form the spirit of Memphis. This extraordinary ‘Plaza’ dressing table with its matching stool was designed by Michael Graves for the famous Milanese design group. The American architect and designer was inspired by modern architecture from 1981, bringing a touch of originality here by recreating the appearance of a mirror ball for the side shelves. 

Like design, art evolved into simpler, purer forms in the 1920s. In the Weimar Republic, this style was especially manifested in the New Objectivity movement, which included among its faithful representatives the Cologne painter Anton Räderscheidt, creator of this portrait of a married couple from 1924.

This work combines two major figures of the 20th century: Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. Produced on Japanese paper, it is a unique copy of the serigraphy body created by Warhol in 1980.

Alex Katz is represented with one of his sketches, a portrait executed in an unusual format (16 x 42 cm) and titled Ursula.

The work White Structure, from 1994, is by Raimund Girke, a student of Hanover and Düsseldorf and representative of analytical painting in the 1950s. His style is mainly based on the use of a reduced colour palette. This plastic vocabulary has earned him significant and international recognition.

Notice to collectors who benefit from a minimum of space: Achat 6 is a 180 x 480 cm wall installation designed by Manuel Franke. The work is a direct reference to the monumental installation by Franke Achat located in the new Graf-Adolf-Platz metro station.

As a reminder, Kunst & Design Schops Turowski’s auction is taking place on 9 May in Krefeld. All the information on the progress of the auction as well as the consultation hours can be found on the auction house's website.

Explore the entire Kunst & Design Schops Turowski catalogue here