Vienna's Dorotheum, a leading auction house of central Europe, is presenting the next event in the auction calendar with Contemporary Week. On 23-26 June, modern and contemporary art, as well as fine wrist and pocket watches, will be auctioned off in four sales. Here are the highlights:
Classic Modern (23 June)
A painting in a style completely different from Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco aesthetic is on offer. The unfinished portrait of an unknown girl with a white shawl from around 1952 hardly corresponds to the sensuous portraits of women for which the artist is famous. The inspiration here was not her muses, but the art of the Italian Renaissance.
This classic Schiele drawing Woman Undressing was made in 1917. Gustav Klimt was one of the few people who honoured Egon Schiele's talent during his lifetime, and Schiele in turn admired and was influenced by his style, as seen here.
Alfons Walde's style is also unmistakable in the painting Einsamer Berghof from 1935, which is also the highest valued lot of Contemporary Week, estimated at £255,000- 310,000.
During the same period, Giulio D'Anna painted Stormo Aereo + Passaggio Simultaneo. Aeroplanes were a recurring motif in D'Anna's works, since he considered them most symbolic of the future.
In Vegetable barrow – dog cart by Max Liebermann, a dog looks out at the viewer from under an abundant vegetable cart inspected by customers. It is one of the early works with which Liebermann began to depict everyday life on the streets.
Fernando Botero's oil painting Couple under the umbrella was painted in 2004. It is made in the Colombian artist's characteristic style of voluptuous, rounded characters in vivid colours.
Contemporary Art (24 June)
The top lots in the auction of contemporary art can be divided into two groups: in black and white, and colour. Among the former is Cycle of Games from the late work of AR Penck, who manages to make a serious question noticeable at second glance through his composition of figures and symbols.
The abstract painter Carla Accardi began to concentrate on the 'poetry of signs' in the 1950s. She largely reduced her colour palette to black and white. The present Integrazione n. 2 is a fine example from this important creative period of the artist.
Another black-and-white top lot is a screen print by Andy Warhol from 1964. At that time, the pop art genius surprisingly turned away from his commercial motifs and turned to a photo of four simple hibiscus flowers, which he produced in a variety of colours as well as black and white.
With a close-up of the 'window to the soul', Maria Lassnig inspires among the colourful works of the offer. Although signed, there is no exact dating of the oil painting. Only a programme on Austrian television from 2000, in which the artist and the work of art appear, can be used as a clue.
Tutto, a work by the important representative of Italian postmodernity Mario Schifano, was created between 1978 and 1981.
Combining this pyramid sculpture with the typical symbolism of the artist, Pyramid Sculpture by Keith Haring dates to 1989 and comes from a private Swiss collection.
The auction with wrist and pocket watches from Rolex, Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and other coveted brands will close out the sales on 26 June in the Palais Dorotheum, where the other three auctions will also take place.