Schlemmer's 'Half-Figure Diagonal' Brings A Full $380,00 At Auction

STUTTGART, GERMANY

:Oskar Schlemmer's (1888-1943) "Halbfigur diagonal (Half-Figure Diagonal)," painted in oil over pencil on paper in 1941, was knocked down for a winning $380,000 at Nagel's 30th Special Auction of Modern art recently, going to a private collector from Württemberg. The underbidder was the Swiss trade. The picture, listed in the catalogue raisonné, comes from the artist's estate and had already been seen in retrospectives.

The price obtained by Nagel Auktionen for this characteristic work is among the highest Schlemmer knockdowns of the past few months. First place is taken by the work auctioned at Villa Grisebach in November 2005, "Unterhaltung (Entertainment)"; it was made in 1935, shows two figures and was knocked down for $995,000. The Beck collection in Stuttgart, which was put on the block at Sotheby's in London in 2002, contained a "Blaue Treppe (Blue Stair)" from the year 1936; the picture shows a total of four figures and yielded $560,000.

Overall, the 30th Special Auction of Modern Art turned over a gross total of $2.3 million. The sum total of all estimated prices came to $1.6 million. Consignments coming fresh onto the market from several private collections and estates were responsible for the good results, and also stimulated the propensity of international dealers and collectors to make purchases.

A private buyer bidding by telephone secured the stately bronze figure of a seated nude "Olympia" by Fritz Klimsch (German, 1870-1960) for $93,000. Klimsch's 70 1/4-inch-high standing nude titled "Frühling (Spring)," 1925-26, was valued at $44,000.

Owing to the great interest shown in the runup to the auction, it was easy to foresee that the $3,800 estimate for S.J. Serebryakova's (1884-1967) "Girl at a Piano," a pastel done around 1922, would be short-lived. A German dealer secured this lovely portrait of daughter Tata for $81,000. Underbidder was the French trade.

However, the French trade was indeed successful with Auguste Herbin's (1882-1960) "Péniches sur la Seine à Paris (Barges on the Seine in Paris)," 1904. This picture, painted in oil on canvas in the Impressionist manner, rose to $71,000.

The prints by Rolf Nesch (1893-1975) were extremely sought after. They came from the collection of Senator Hans Weitpert and his wife Hilde Weitpert-Vogt. Weitpert was widely known as the head of the Belser publishing house in Stuttgart and held many honorary offices. Among others, he was president of the VfB Stuttgart football team.

Two two-part metallic ink prints on the topic of the "Theater-Garderobe (Theater Dressing Room)," made in 1947-48 and probably outside the edition of 20 copies, each brought $68,000. The accompanying printing plate brought just as much. The purchaser of all three lots came from Scandinavia, as did the immediate underbidder. Nesch's etching "Negro Show," printed in black and red on Japan paper in 1930, was secured by a bidder present at the auction for $27,000.

Other knockdowns include the $44,000 paid for Alfons Walde's "Feierabend (Quitting Time)," 1919, and for Franz von Stuck's "Sphinx," an oil on cardboard. A total of $37,000 was realized for a large sculpture by Erich Hauser (1930-2004).

An abstract "Komposition" done in 1964 by Max Ackermann fetched $27,000, and the painting "Geburt mit Adam und Eva (Birth with Adam and Eve)" by Karl Caspar came to $18,500.

Finally, the "6 Piccadillies" folder by Dieter Roth (1930-1998) also proved to be highly esteemed. It contains six two-sided silkscreen prints on wood board, all signed, dated 1969-70 and marked A/P. Here, a German bidder at the auction bid $22,000, thus defeating several American dealers bidding by telephone.

In the Varia part of the auction, which was conducted in the forenoon on the same day, a painting by Ludolf Liberts (1895-1959) improved the estimated $1,000 tenfold to reach $13,500. Thus, the "Küstenlandschaft (Coastal Landscape)" in oil on canvas overtook the three Liberts pictures in the "Selected Works" in the second part of the auction. It can be presumed that the picture offered in the Varia section was made in Latvia before the artist emigrated to New York.

All prices reported are converted from euros to US dollars and include the 33 percent buyer's premium. For information, 11-649-69-0 or www.auction.de.