Sale: 540 / Evening Sale, June 09. 2023 in Munich Lot 58

 

58
Rainer Fetting
Kotti U-Bahn, 1978.
Dispersion on nettle
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 127,000 / $ 137,160

(incl. surcharge)
Kotti U-Bahn. 1978.
Dispersion on nettle.
Lower right dated and inscribed "U-Bahnstation Nacht“. Belatedly signed, dated, titled and inscribed with the technique, the dimensions, the number "FF 16“ and "nachträglich 2017 signiert" on the reverse. 250 x 200 cm (98.4 x 78.7 in).
[AM].
• The elevated train at the Berlin 'Kottbusser Tor' in a powerful and highly dynamic color frenzy.
• Executed with the spontaneous and brute brushstroke characteristic of Fetting's "fierce painting".
• Important early time of origin, shortly after the Galerie am Moritzplatz had been founded by Fetting, Helmut Middendorf, Salomé, Anne Jud and Berthold Schepers in 1977.
• Rainer Fetting's early works are prime examples of the seminal development of "wild" figurative painting in Europe.
• The atmospheric Berlin paintings make for a key group in the artist's œuvre.
• For the first time offered on the international auction market (source: artprice.com)
.

The authenticity of the present work was kindly confirmed by the artist.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin.
Private collection Northern Germany.

Berlin – "I felt good there"
There is no doubt that there is a special relationship between Rainer Fetting and the city of Berlin. Still divided into East and West in his early days there, he later said about the city: "I would have painted anywhere. But this city was so broken, so unhealthy - I felt good there, because I felt that my family, school and also myself were just as broken." (Rainer Fetting, quoted from: Rainer Fetting. Berlin, Munich 2011, p. 63). In 1977, together with Helmut Middendorf, Salomé and Bernd Zimmer, he founded the collectively operated Galerie am Moritzplatz. The gallery would be the nucleus for the later success of the group, which would cause a stir as the “Neue Wilde (New Wild Ones) and their figurative painting in a "violent" duct and with strong colors. During this time Berlin was much more than his home and the place where he sold his paintings. The city was his source of inspiration and his most important motif. Fetting always soaked up what he saw in the streets of the lively metropolis, using it as an opportunity to paint his famous wall pictures, construction sites, the heated nightlife, factories or the Berlin TV tower. During the painting process, Fetting transforms the motifs, which seem trivial at first sight, into something spontaneous and brutally expressive: With the help of the glowing dispersion paint, which the artist spreads out thinly across large-format background, his "fierce painting" unfolds an impact one can hardly escape.

Kottbusser Tor
In the painting offered here, Rainer Fetting gives us a thrilling, dynamic view of a row of buildings at the Kottbusser Tor underground station in Kreuzberg (then West Berlin) – popularly known as "Kotti". The Kottbusser Tor, which faces the eponymous city of Cottbus, was originally built in the 16th century as one of the customs gates in the Berlin city wall, of which only the Brandenburg Gate has survived until today. In 1902, the first station, the "Kottbuser Thor", was put into operation at this point. The successor building that Fetting painted, which was preserved as a listed building, was built between 1927 and 1929 and replaced the old elevated railway. It represents a combination of underground and elevated station, the above-ground bridge construction between the pillars has an unusually large span of over 50 meters. In Fetting's painting, the widely spaced pillars are impressively staged in a strongly distorted perspective and spatial depth. Using bright colors, strong contrasts and his stirring, expressive style, he created an energetic picture of the underground station at night. In the 1970s, the Kotti was a traffic junction, the center of the squatter movement and – as it still is today – a place for punks and junkies.

Declaration of love to the big city
In almost cheerful colors, Fetting depicts the building complex of the elevated railway that runs there as a fleeting and yet colossal appearance and thus creates a symbol of the big city and the fast-paced and colorful Berlin life. The red and pink lines along the road leading past the train station are reminiscent of tail-lights of cars driving past at night. Created in the time of awakening, one year after the Galerie am Moritzplatz was founded, the spectacular painting allows for an extraordinary insight into the artist's early creative period in Berlin and at the same time presents itself as a triumphant declaration of love to the big city. [AM]



58
Rainer Fetting
Kotti U-Bahn, 1978.
Dispersion on nettle
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 127,000 / $ 137,160

(incl. surcharge)