Lot 335
335
A. R. Penck (b. 1939)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
A. R. Penck (b. 1939)

Ränitzgasse 19

Details
A. R. Penck (b. 1939)
Ränitzgasse 19
dispersion on canvas
57 x 70 3/8in. (144.5 x 178.9cm.)
Painted in 1977
Provenance
Galerie Konrad Fischer, Dusseldorf.
Collection Visser, Netherlands.
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 6 April 2006, lot 355.
Acquired at the above sale from the present owner.
Exhibited
Cologne, Galerie Michael Werner, A. R. Penck: Bilder, 1977.
Cologne, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, A. R. Penck, Gemälde und Handzeichnungen, 1981, no. 127 (illustrated, p. 37).
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Schilderkunst in Duitsland, Peinture en Allemagne, 1981 (illustrated, p. 199).
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Penck & Visser. Drawings, Paintings, Sculptures, and Ceramics from the Visser Collections, 1991, no. 18 (illustrated, p. 30),
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, A. R. Penck, 1988, no. 78 (illustrated in colour, p. 189 and installation view illustrated, p. 52). This exhibition later travelled to Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich.
Eindhoven, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum (on loan until 2005).
Special Notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

Client Service
Client Service
+ 1 212 636 2000

Lot Essay

Created in 1977, Ränitzgasse 19 is representative of a critical period in A. R. Penck's career. Created in the same year that Penck was prohibited from taking part at the Documenta 6, and many of Penck's works were confiscated by the GDR government for their oppositional nature, the work signals his decision to leave East-Germany in 1980. Ränitzgasse 19 can be seen an autobiographical statement about the loss of freedom within a politically oppressed society, as symbolised by the fallen eagle, the German national emblem, and its misplaced halo. In its reduction towards essential, simplified forms, Penck focuses our attention towards the dynamic interplay of the colourful motifs of three women against the neutral background, reminding the viewer of a conflicted nation which produced a sprawling artistic subculture within communist East-Germany.

More from Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction

View All
View All