Sale: 520 / Evening Sale, June 18. 2021 in Munich Lot 305

 

305
Katharina Grosse
Ohne Titel, 2000.
Acrylic on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 / $ 129,600
Sold:
€ 162,500 / $ 175,500

(incl. surcharge)
Ohne Titel. 2000.
Acrylic on canvas.
Verso of the canvas signed and dated as well as twice inscribed with the dimensions. Inscribed with the work number "2000/1045 L" on the stretcher and on a label by a hand other than that of the artist. 260 x 190 cm (102.3 x 74.8 in).

• For the first time offered on the international auction market.
• Large-size work in Grosse's characteristic spray technique.
• Katharina Grosse is among the world's most sucessful contemporary artists.
• The artist was recently honored with a spectacular solo show at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2020/21)
.

The work is registered in the catalog raisonneé with the number "2000/1045". We are grateful to the Studio Katharina Grosse, Berlin, for the kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Switzerland.

"What I find so special about painting is the fact that everything is superimposed on the surface and that it becomes visible all at once, meaning you see a sort of time cluster. You see the things you did on the surface first and those you did last simultaneously. Nothing happens sequentially, and that is so unique."
Katharina Grosse, quote from: 3sat Pressetreff online, October 13, 2020.

Today Katharina Grosse is considered one of the most important painters of contemporary abstraction as well as a master of monumental painting. With her artistic work she has made an important, progressive contribution to contemporary art since her color field paintings from the 1990s. She not only applies her painting onto paper, canvases and other traditional image carriers, but also to meter-long fabric constructions, objects, floors, earthworks, walls and facades. This way she occupies entire rooms and locations, which, through her artistic intervention, are transformed into oversized installations. With the choice of the material used and also with the special, characteristic way of applying the paint, the artist ensures clear boundary shifts within painting: Although Grosse also works with conventional brushes and paint rollers, her preferred tool alway has been spray gun. "I use everything that makes sense for my project. I came across the spray by chance in the mid-1990s. I lived in Marseille and a friend let me try an airbrush gun. The sight of the small spray dots spread over the surface has captivated me since." (Katharina Grosse, quote from: n-tv online, www.n-tv.de/leben/Katharina-Grosse-der-Name-ist-Programm-article21863889.html). The use of a spray gun minimizes the direct physical contact between the artist and the chosen imae carrier, which no longer has to be touched for the application of the paint. As an activity, spraying is much more similar to the process of seeing than to the traditional painting process with a brush. Just like the human gaze gliding over an object, the spray gun is moved back and forth over the image carrier from a distance. In the work offered Katharina Grosse also superimposes numerous very different delicate layers of paint with partly shiny pigments which form a harmonious whole on the canvas. Her unusual way of working and her understanding of painting as pure "overpainting" - as a rejection of the traditional conception of images – led to a decisive turning point in her artistic work in the late 1990s. A point she made to proves that the once-dead discipline of painting still offers room for further developments, changes and new discoveries. This can also be seen in the characteristic work offered here, which enables the viewer to have a very special visual experience with the delicate yet intense mist of paint that wafts across the picture‘s surface and the astonishing depth of the picture created by the different levels of paint application. [CH]



305
Katharina Grosse
Ohne Titel, 2000.
Acrylic on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 / $ 129,600
Sold:
€ 162,500 / $ 175,500

(incl. surcharge)