LONDON, ENGLAND.- Sotheby’s announced the sale of The Beck Collection of German Expressionist and Modern Art to be held at Sotheby’s in London on October 8 and 9, 2002. Estimated to make in excess of $20 million, the collection comprises major German and Austrian paintings by artists ranging from August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej von Jawlensky to Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer and Ernest Wilhelm Nay. It also includes hundreds of drawings, watercolours and prints by artists such as Alfred Kubin, Käthe Kollwitz, Paul Klee, Max Beckmann and Max Pechstein, plus a comprehensive group of works by the Stuttgart artist Adolf Hölzel.
The Beck Collection was amassed by two generations of the Beck family who were based in Stuttgart and ran a successful business specializing in heating systems. Paul Beck (1887-1949) built up the business without any formal training and through its financial success, he was able to start buying works of art at the start of the 20th century. From an early age he was passionate about literature and art and a defining moment came when he met the Karlsruher painter, Hans Thoma. He also met with a number of artists in their studios and was able to buy works directly from them or their families, following their deaths. He developed close friendships with many artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer. On one occasion in exchange for installing central heating for the heirs of Adolf Hölzel, he received a large part of the artist’s estate.
Paul Beck opposed the Nazi regime and was a staunch supporter of many of the modern artists whose work was banned under the regime and labelled "degenerate", such as Kandinsky and Schlemmer. Many of his key acquisitions date from this period.
His son Dr Helmut Beck (1919-2001) originally a doctor and then a successful businessman systematically added to the existing collection with new acquisitions of Expressionist art. In addition he developed the collection by exploring the abstract component of Expressionism, its late 19th century roots and also African Tribal art. Among others he built up an extensive group of works by Kandinsky, Baumeister, Nay and Kubin and his collection extends towards works from the early 1950s.
Like his father, Helmut Beck developed close friendships with artists. An example of this is when he was in Paris and met regularly with Kandinsky and his wife Nina, from whom he acquired the majority of the works in the collection. Furthermore many of the contemporary art historians frequented his house, such as Will Grohmann, Werner Hoftmann and Kurt Leonhard. Helmut Beck also built up an important collection of Illuminated Manuscripts which Sotheby’s sold in June 1997 for £11,158,415, at the time a record price for a collection of manuscripts at auction.
The collection is almost entirely unknown to the international public as it has never been the subject of a major exhibition. Divided now between seven heirs, the dispersal of the collection at auction was an inevitability.
Helena Newman, Senior Director and Head of the Impressionist and Modern Art Department in Sotheby’s London said: "The collection provides a revelatory insight into art in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. It is unique because of the extraordinary range of works; it includes major paintings by internationally renowned artists such as August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, but also rare, high-quality works by artists who are yet to enjoy widespread international acclaim, such as the Stuttgart artist, Adolf Hölzel, who influenced Nolde and Kandinsky. Interest in German and Austrian 20th century art is at an all-time high, as witnessed at Sotheby’s in London in June when Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Akte in der Sonne, Moritzburg, sold for a record price of £3,526,650. The appearance of this major totally fresh collection at auction will cause a sensation among international collectors."
The evening sale includes approximately 40 highlights of the collection. Of particular importance are three exceptional works by the Blauer Reiter artist, August Macke (1887-1914). Zwei Frauen vor dem Hutladen (Two Women in Front of the Hat Shop) of 1913, is one of the most accomplished and complete paintings from Macke’s celebrated series of Schaufenster (Window Display) executed between 1912 and 1914. It was whilst he was living in Switzerland in 1913 that he developed a fascination for ladies looking into the windows of boutiques and milliners. This painting is one of a number of works on this theme and is estimated at £1,500,000-2,000,000. Other celebrated paintings from this series are in the Westfälisches Landesmusem für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster and in the Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum, Hagen.
A second painting by Macke is Sonnenuntergang nach dem regen (Leute im Park) (Sunset After the Rain - Figures in the Park) which belongs to the artist’s last major series of paintings, executed in the summer of 1914, shortly before his untimely death in September of that year. These works are characterised by a remarkable artistic maturity and confidence, and above all by their extraordinary effects of light and colour. The use of bright, radiant tones and their application in wide, spontaneous brush strokes show Macke’s debt to the Fauve painters. It is estimated at £1,000,000-1,500,000. The sale also includes a further important painting by August Macke, the landscape, Waldspaziergang (Forest Walk), from 1914 which reflects his modern, cubo-futurist style. It is estimated at £1,500,000-2,000,000.
Among the works by Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941) is Halbakt (Half-Nude), painted in 1912 at the time when the artist produced some of his strongest and most expressive portraits. This painting draws on a rich tradition of modernist painting, including the art of, among others, Van Gogh, Matisse and Van Dongen. It is estimated at £900,000-1,200,000. Another strong expressionist portrait by Jawlensky, Blauer Schal (Blue Shawl), from 1912 is estimated at £800,000-1,200,000.
Wassily Kandinsky’s (1866-1944) Schwarzes Dreieck (Black Triangle) of 1923 is one of the most important watercolours that the artist executed in the mid-1920s, during the height of the artist’s Bauhaus period. It is expected to fetch £500,000-700,000.
The sale includes 24 works by the leading post-war abstract artist, Willi Baumeister (1889-1955) and also Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-68). One of the highlights to be sold in the evening sale is Eidos VII, the last of the seven most important panels and canvases which form the core of the Eidos series, the final group of paintings which the artist embarked upon before war broke out in Europe in 1939. It is estimated at £200,000-300,000.
Volumes II, III and IV of the Beck Collection will be sold the following day. Part II will feature further paintings, drawings and sculpture by German and Austrian-based artists such as Erich Heckel, Carl Hofer, Wassily, Kandinsky, Käthe Kollwitz, Gerhard Marcks and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. One of the highlights is a group of 24 drawings and watercolours by the Austrian artist Alfred Kubin, 1877-1959. Das Seegespenst (The Sea Monster), executed circa 1902-03 is a wonderful example of the artist’s profound magical Symbolism and the exploration into his personal, mystic fantasy world. It is estimated at £25,000-35,000.
Volume III will consist of the works of the important Stuttgart artist Adolf Hölzel and his circle. Of particular importance is a group of approximately 40 works by Hölzel, including his largest format abstract pastels and two of the early abstract "ornaments" from 1898, which were trail-blazing icons for abstract art. The effects of Hölzel’s teaching are reflected in the works of his pupils such as Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, Otto Meyer-Amden and Ida Kerkovius, which are included in the sale. Estimates range from £800 to £40,000.
Volume IV, the German Expressionist and Modern Prints includes approximately 250 lots. Among the highlights is a major portfolio by Max Beckmann, Die Hölle (The Hell), from 1911 comprising 11 lithographs estimated at £150,000-200,000; Paul Klee’s haunting etching Drohendes Haupt from 1905, a superb impression of this very rare early print estimated at £60,000-80,000 and Emil Nolde’s woodcut, Mann und Weibchen (Man and Woman) from 1912, an extremely rare woodcut estimated £12,000-15,000.
The Beck Collection will be offered for sale in London during the same week as Sotheby’s major sale of German and Austrian Art.
