Sale: 437 / Post War I, Dec. 10. 2016 in Munich Lot 834

 

834
Allan Kaprow
Weiblicher Akt, auf einem Stuhl sitzend, 1954.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,100
Sold:
€ 67,500 / $ 72,225

(incl. surcharge)
Weiblicher Akt, auf einem Stuhl sitzend. 1954.
Oil on canvas.
97.5 x 63 cm (38.3 x 24.8 in).

Paintings by the artist are extremely rare on the international auction market, artnet.com only mentions 2 paintings.

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia.

EXHIBITION: Collection Helmut Klinker. Malerei, Bildhauerei, Objekte und Graphik, Museum Bochum, 12 May - 1 July 1984, cat. no. 168 (with illu.).

This very rare early work on canvas by Kaprow from 1954 was made before the idea with the "Happenings" came up. However, the quick and spontaneous painting act shows a connection with Kaprow's painter colleague Pollock and the beginnings of Action-Painting. Even though the figure is truncated on all four sides of the painting the observer fully grasps the lasciviousness and relaxation it emanates. The dynamic background painted in red, the asymetrical blue chair with a seemingly broken back and a vertical seat look like a mixture of post-expressionist painting and the works by the "Jungen Wilden" (Young wild artists) in Berlin in the 1980s.



834
Allan Kaprow
Weiblicher Akt, auf einem Stuhl sitzend, 1954.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,100
Sold:
€ 67,500 / $ 72,225

(incl. surcharge)