Classic Week at the Viennese auction house Dorotheum, which saw the auction of a Titian painting go for a soaring price, only just ended while another event takes place: during Contemporary Week, which runs from 31 May to 3 June, the most renowned artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are being represented with fantastic works that will inspire art lovers and collectors alike.
Here are six highlights waiting to be discovered!
In November 1973, Andy Warhol visited his favourite artist Man Ray for a photoshoot at his Paris apartment. This was organised by the Turin art dealer Luciano Anselmino, who had in mind a series of portraits of the then 83-year-old Dada legend in Warhol's iconic style. Warhol had admired Man Ray since his days at Pittsburgh Art School, which is reflected in the present example from the series, offered for the first time on the auction market. The design is rather unique and individual, untypical for Warhol.
In 1950, a grant enabled the Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies to spend a year in Paris and immerse himself in the local art scene. Not only did Art Informel have a great influence on him, but also Jean Dubuffet and his Art Brut. This was the birth of Tàpies' material images, which integrated traces of everyday objects into his works. One such work from 1991 is called Snake in a Square, depicted above.
The auction features Deux amis noutchi by American-Ivorian artist Aboudia, who is part of West Africa's emerging contemporary art scene. He divides his creative time between his studios in Brooklyn and Abidjan. Since 2009, Aboudia's paintings inspired by the streets of Abidjan have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including those in London, Lagos, Paris, Johannesburg, Barcelona and New York.
The contemporary art auction will take place in two sessions on 1 and 2 June. In addition to the artists presented above, Sam Francis, Carla Accardi, Herbert Brandl, Katharina Grosse and Georges Mathieu are also represented.
The auction of Modern Art will have already taken place on 31 May, marking the start of Contemporary Week. Here you can bid on works by masters such as Alexej von Jawlensky, Gerhild Diesner, Victor Brauner and Werner Berg. And of course the following three highlights:
After the suicide of Maria ‘Ria’ Runks, who committed suicide on 28 December 1911 out of a disappointed love for the controversial writer Hanns Heinz Ewers, her mother commissioned Gustav Klimt to paint a posthumous portrait. The commission dragged on as the painful loss caused the family to reject Klimt’s first two portraits. While working on the third attempt, Klimt himself died and the portrait was left unfinished. A mirror-inverted preliminary drawing for ‘Bildnis Ria Munk III’ (Ria Runk III) is now up for auction.
The subject of horse and man is one of the main motifs of the Italian artist Marino Marini. At Dorotheum, collectors now have the opportunity to purchase two complementary works from 1955-56 that deal with the subject in two and three dimensions: the bronze Piccolo Miracolo, which depicts a rider falling with his horse, and the Painting Miracolo di colore, painted on the canvas.
Marc Chagall's dreamy pictures full of symbolism take the viewer into the inner world of the artist, who repeatedly thematised his love for his wife Bella as well as the memory of his childhood in Vitebsk. The watercolour Animal fabuleux: Fabel-Tier from 1926-27 seems to have come directly from one of his dreams. Chagall's preoccupation with the illustrations for Jean de La Fontaine's fables at the time may also have played a role.
Admirers and collectors of jewels, wristwatches and pocket watches can look forward to corresponding auctions on 2 and 3 June, which will round off the offerings of Dorotheum’s Contemporary Week.
All auctions are taking place in the Palais Dorotheum, Dorotheergasse 17, in Vienna. While previews of the watch and jewellery lots are already on view, you’ll have to wait until 21 May for the opening of the art previews.
Discover all lots from Dorotheum’s auctions right here at Barnebys
