Italian art leads Dorotheum's fall auction

The Dorotheum auction house’s autumn session of modern and contemporary art was held in Vienna on November 24, 25 and 26. The catalog, consisting of a rich selection of lots offered for auction, boasts the strong presence of Italian painting. Suffice it to say that the catalog covers feature works by De Chirico, for modern art, and Kounellis, for contemporary art.

Although the measures taken to contain the pandemic have conditioned participation in the hall, there are decent results, proof that, despite the situation, Vienna is reacting well to the crisis. It starts on November 24 with modern art. The first lot is one of the evening’s highlights, namely Altar des Dionysos (1886), a study done by Gustav Klimt for the ceiling decoration of Vienna ’s Burgtheater, which changes hands for €475,000.

Another top lot is ChaïmSoutine’spaintingLaFemme en rouge au fond bleu from 1928, which fetches € 1,811,500, while the catalog’s cover work, Giorgio De Chirico’s splendid Piazza d’Italia (1940), reaches € 271,000. The evening continued, registering other results for early 20th-century Italian art. Adjudications include works by Felice Casorati, Renato Guttuso, Massimo Campigli and Filippo De Pisis.

On Nov. 25, we move on to the first section of the contemporary art auction, which opens under the banner of tricolor art with two works by Lucio Fontana: Deposition of Christ (1954/56) and Spatial Concept, Waiting (1967/68), both adjudicated for €259,000 and €552,000 respectively. It continues with the exponents of the Forma Group 1. Piero Dorazio ’s marvelous Chiar di Luna (1962) starts from an auction base of € 80,000 and reaches € 137,000, while Carla Accardi ’s tondo Spagnolo turchese 2 (1983) settles at € 45,000.

Chaïm Soutine, La femme en rouge au found bleu (ca. 1928)

Lucio Fontana, Deposition of Christ (1954-1956)

Piero Dorazio, Moonlight (1962)

Mario Schifano, Untitled (1976)

Gastone Novelli’s work Witha Signal (1960) struggles, which sold below its low estimate at €80,000, including commission. Of the two proposed works by Enrico Castellani, only Untitled (1963) finds a new owner for € 174,000. Another top lot of the session is Jannis KounellisUntitled2 parts (1989), which excels on the cover and stands at € 345,000, while Alberto Burri ’s remarkable Untitled (1947/1988) changes hands for € 174,000

Disappointing expectations were Fausto Melotti ’s sculpture Due curve (1973/74) and Gino De Dominicis with thework Opera ubiqua (1997), which did not find a place. Mario Schifano with the work Untitled (1976) registers an excellent result, tripling its auction base, and from € 30,000 it rises, by raises, to € 87,000. Among international artists, the results of Asians Lee Ufan and Yayoi Kusama stand out. Viennese Franz West’s 1990 work BI 4 (Paßstück) materializes a considerable result. The sculpture, accompanied by a full-bodied résumé, boasts exposure at the 1990 Venice Biennale, reasoning that from an auction base of €70,000 it comes to change hands for €216,000.

Toward the end of the evening, attention focuses on a colorful Marilyn (1967) by Andy Warhol and the work Two nudes (1994) by Roy Lichtenstein, but both lots find no new owner. The auction closes with Betty (2014) by Gerhard Richter, which sold for €162,000. On the last day, November 26, four works by Emilio Vedova stand out, three of which find a new owner, as do the two works by Valerio Adami and an Untitled paper (1957) by Piero Manzoni.

Finally, interesting results are those of the sales of works by Austrians Arnulf Rainer, Franz West and Hermann Nitsch. In view of the considerable offerings offered in the auctions, the three-day Viennese event closes with a good result that demonstrates the presence of a market that is certainly more cautious, but not for this reason at a standstill.

Emilio Vedova, Of Our Time (1960)

Franz West, BI 4 (1990)

Jannis Kounellis, Untitled (1989)

Lee Ufan, From line no. 790256 (1979)

Italian art leads Dorotheum's fall auction

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