Sale: 529 / Post War / Contemporary Art, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 219

 

219
Karl Hartung
Vierkantsäule I, 1966/67.
Bronze, polished
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 47,500 / $ 51,300

(incl. surcharge)
Vierkantsäule I. 1966/67.
Bronze, polished.
Krause 799. Underside with the foundry mark as well as with the special mark and the estate stamp. One of 6 + 1 copies. Height: 59.2 cm (23.3 in). [CH].

• Hartung creates a symbiosis of clear forms and a particularly sensual materiality, of abstraction and a simultaneous closeness to vitality and vegetation.
• Hartung contrasts weight and compactness of the column with wave-shaped edges and gentle contours.
• This is the first time that a copy of this bronze is offered on the auction market.
• Another cast is part of the Collection Noack, Berlin (permanent exhibition)
.

We are grateful to the Karl Hartung Estate for the kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate.

EXHIBITION: (each presumably different copy)
Karl Hartung (1908-1967). Eine Werkübersicht zum 80. Geburtstag, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin, 1988, cat. no. 86, p. 67 (with the title "Baumsäule", with full-page illu. on p. 61).
Karl Hartung. Aufbruch - Aufbrüche, Kunsthalle Schweinfurt, November 21, 2014 - April 12, 2015, p. 87 (with illu.).

"With great virtuoso Hartung employs the full range of his sculptural vocabulary, which has become ever more comprehensive and universal over the decades. Elementary base forms also reappear, that is in the two bronze square columns, which, apart from the minimally rolling contour, are reduced to pure stereometry. Through this simplicity, a reduction taken to the extreme, Hartung attains a degree of spiritualization and concentration of the form that appears to be the sum of his entire previous creation."
Dr. Markus Krause, in: Karl Hartung 1908-1967. Metamorphosen von Mensch und Natur (monograph and catalog raisonné), Munich 1998, p. 166.




219
Karl Hartung
Vierkantsäule I, 1966/67.
Bronze, polished
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 47,500 / $ 51,300

(incl. surcharge)