MUNICH.- A very special catalog with a small but select range of works by the Pop Art icon Andy Warhol will be released on occasion of Ketterer Kunst's 60th company anniversary. The choice of sheets – mainly photographs as well as drawings from the early 1950s – by the shy and introvert artist will be auctioned in Munich on 6 December.

Never before has the German auction market seen such a selection of works, most of which come from Andy Warhol's estate, a number of photographs are particularly remarkable, among them two lots with Polaroids of artist colleagues, likewise pioneers and protagonist of Pop Art:

Both the unique piece “Robert Rauschenberg“ (estimate: € 6,000-8,000) from 1981, as well as the four Polaroids “Roy Lichtenstein“ (estimate: € 15,000-20,000) from around 1975 are prime examples of Warhol's portrait photography. On a most narrow image space and with a compact image section, the exceptional artist used his Big Shot Polaroid Camera to create an extraordinarily dense narration, which provides just enough space for artist and object to reveal something of themselves.

Additionally, various silver gelatine proofs with motifs ranging from portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jon Gould all the way to architectural icons like the Empire State Building or hammer and sickle, the incunables of Communism. On the one hand, Warhol's photographs show his thoughts come alive as pictures, on the other hand, they document his internal struggle for a motif. Some, such as “Skull“ or “Hammer and Sickle“ served as models, making them the well of Warhol's image creation. Estimates range between € 2,000 and 9,000.

Some of his hand-drawn portraits are in stark contrast to the subjectivity of his portrait photographs. For example, the ballpoint pen drawing “Bob C.“ (estimate: € 14,000 – 18,000) from around 1955 documents the development of a reduced typification that abandons all subjectivity in favor of de- individualized formulas. This way he rendered a unique and distanced perspective on the depicted object.

During the 1950s, a decade coined by Warhol's activities as commercial artist in New York, he almost exclusively made drawings. His naive style and wit, which found expression in both his private and commercial works, remained unchanged even beyond the 1950s. Impressive works are “Couple Embracing” (estimate; € 7,000-9,000), “Jack Holding Crayons” (estimate: € 9,000-12,000) and “Young Man” (estimate: € 7,000-9,000) but also pieces like “Ice Cream Cone” and “Still Life with Fruit on Table” (estimate: € 50,000-70,000 each).

Some of the catalog's top lots include the portrait “Lenin” (estimate: € 100,000-150,000) from the late 1980ies, the collage “Mick Jagger” (estimate: € 45,000-65,000) and the portrait of the British musician and lover of Edward Munch, “Eva Mudocci” (estimate: € 90,000-120,000) as well as a portrait of the great German poet and thinker Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (estimate: € 40,000-60,000), one of the rare “German“ motifs. This silkscreen in colors is the first work from a series that references historic works of art. In this piece Warhol isolates a section of the presumably most famous Goethe portrait by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein from 1787, which today it is in possession of the Frankfurt Städel Museum.

The paper collage and color silkscreen “Viewpoint“ may perhaps be obtained for an estimate of € 14,000- 28,000. The subject of this work, in which Warhol made a building the protagonist of his art for the first time, is the architecture of the artist's New York. The exquisite range of offerings is completed by the colored India ink drawing “Hot Air Balloon“. The gracious work from the artist's estate could perhaps fly to its new owner for an estimate of € 14,000-18,000.