VIENNA.- Modern and Contemporary Art, alongside important jewellery and watches, will feature in the major spring auctions of the Contemporary Week at Dorotheum in Vienna from 19 to 21 May 2026, followed by Editions on 10 June.

One of the central works in the Contemporary Art sale on 20 May 2026 is by Julian Schnabel. Created four years ago, it is one of his characteristic paintings composed of ceramic shards from the 'Victory Plate Paintings' series (€180,000–260,000). Schnabel’s unconventional use of materials is a defining feature of his oeuvre. The vibrant quartz-pink blossoms and the luminous azure of the background evoke the optimism of warm summer days. This aspect that may also be read politically: the artist began this series in 2020 on the day Donald Trump lost the presidential election.

Oscillating between beauty and decidedly unorthodox painterly materials are the works of the British 'Sensation' artist Chris Ofili, in which Black culture, religion, history and pop converge. Following his scandal-ridden mourning Black Madonna, in which he employed elephant dung, he remained faithful to this material in the portrait offered in the present sale. Here, he combines a female portrait with the playing card spade (“trump”) (€300,000–500,000). "Trump" is an exceptional early masterpiece, executed in 1997–98, a formative period in the artist’s career, during which he devoted himself to the depiction and celebration of Black women and became the first Black artist to receive the Turner Prize awarded by the Tate Gallery.

Another highlight is the bronze "Vater Staat" by Thomas Schütte (€300,000–500,000), from the well-known series of the same name, a monumental version of which, measuring approximately four metres in height, has stood before the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin since 2010. Schütte himself remarked: “For me, the title is almost always a joke; names are labels and of little importance. In the model, 'Vater Staat' bore a striking resemblance to our finance minister—I could hardly have called it 'Schäuble Standing', but 'Vater Staat' satisfied everyone.”

The scope of the auction ranges from works by internationally renowned German artists such as Günther Uecker, Günther Förg, Katharina Grosse and Venice Biennale laureate Anne Imhof, to the internationally acclaimed Swiss artist Miriam Cahn and a group of US artists including William Nelson Copley, Andy Warhol, Robert Longo and Wade Guyton.

Austrian artists also take centre stage, among them Maria Lassnig, Arnulf Rainer, Hermann Nitsch and Herbert Brandl. Over the years, Martha Jungwirth has developed a distinctive style rooted in the tradition of Informel. Not only a defining figure of the Austrian art scene, she has in recent years gained rapid international recognition. Her works exemplify the singularity of her poetic abstraction (2012, €80,000–140,000; 2013, €90,000–150,000). Also working within the Informel tradition is Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, one of the most significant figures of European post-war modernism, whose work remains a unique reflection on space, perception and the experience of modernity (€80,000–120,000).

Monet’s Waterloo

A particular highlight of the Modern Art sale on 19 May 2026 is a pastel of the Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet. It belongs to the series he executed during his third stay in London in the winter of 1901, depicting the bridge in various iterations (€300,000–500,000). The city, with its interplay of water, industrial architecture, traffic and weather, afforded the artist a scene composed of ever-changing nuances of light and colour.

Also offered are works by key figures of Viennese Modernism, including Two Reclining Nudes (€180,000–250,000) and a Seated Girl with a Red Hat by Egon Schiele (€240,000–300,000), as well as Couple Reclining to the Right by Gustav Klimt (€50,000–70,000).

The auction also places particular emphasis on the work of Albin Egger-Lienz, whose death marks its centenary this year. Three works, the oil paintings Two Reapers and Meal, and a watercolour depicting a helmeted peasant’s head from the Dance of Death, illustrate the artist’s painterly engagement with existential themes: the cycle of life and death, the bond between man and nature, the hardship of labour and the terrors of war (€190,000–250,000; €150,000–250,000; €50,000–70,000).

Numerous Italian works from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Renato Guttuso’s portrait of Nino Francina, offer an immersion in the world of Italian Realismo. Giorgio de Chirico is also represented, his metaphysical painting combining classical elements and focusing on his favoured equestrian motif (Horse and Zebra on the Seashore, c. 1930, €220,000–300,000). The theme of horse and rider is central to Marino Marini, here represented by the 55.6 cm-high bronze Cavaliere (€240,000–320,000). Further works by Mario Schifano, Pablo Picasso, Victor Brauner, Kurt Schwitters and Hans Arp complete the offering.