Auction 158

Online Catalogue with all Lots / Auction 158
Modern and Contemporary Art

Saturday, 13 December 2025 at 11:00 am

Lot 207 Gerhard Altenbourg. Versuch, eines Gesichts …

Versuch, eines Gesichts habhaft zu werden: Uta. 1966. Kreide und Bleistift auf festem Velin. 60 x 43 cm. Monogrammiert und datiert. In Passepartout freigestellt, punktuell auf Unterlage montiert und hinter Glas gerahmt. - Insgesamt sehr gut.

Ostdeutsche Kunst – Janda 66/34. - Die vorliegende Zeichnung aus dem Jahr 1966 ist ein exemplarisches Zeugnis von Gerhard Altenbourgs introspektiver Bildsprache, die das Sichtbare stets als Chiffre für das Unsagbare begreift. Anders als der Titel zunächst vermuten lässt, handelt es sich nicht um ein Porträt im klassischen Sinn, sondern um den tastenden Versuch, einer inneren Vorstellung - einer Erinnerung, einer Empfindung - eine Form zu geben. Die Linie, bei Altenbourg niemals rein konturierend, sondern suchend, stockend, wiederholend, entfaltet sich in dieser Arbeit als Ausdruck mentaler Bewegung. Das Gesicht erscheint nicht als fixiertes Gegenüber, sondern als ein durchscheinendes, fast geisterhaftes Fragment.

East German Art – Pencil on wove paper. Monogrammed and dated. Mounted in passepartout, mounted in spots on support and framed behind glass. - Very good overall. - This drawing from 1966 is an exemplary testimony to Gerhard Altenbourg's introspective pictorial language, which always understands the visible as a cipher for the unspeakable. Contrary to what the title initially suggests, this is not a portrait in the classical sense, but rather a tentative attempt to give form to an inner idea - a memory, a feeling. The line, which in Altenbourg's work is never purely contouring, but searching, halting, repetitive, unfolds in this work as an expression of mental movement. The face does not appear as a fixed counterpart, but as a translucent, almost ghostly fragment.

Startprice: 3600 €
Estimate: 5000 €

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This work is subject to under the regular margin scheme. There is a 24.95% buyer's premium on the hammer price and inside the EU 7% (Books, Paintings, Drawings and most Prints) and 19% (Photographs, Screen and Offsetprints, Autographs and Manuscripts) VAT on the final invoice amount.

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On the sales proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography, whose authors have not yet died 70 years before the end of the sale, an additional 2% (subject to change) of the hammer prices from 400€ will be charged pro rata for the VG Bild-Kunst, which represents the copyrights of visual artists according to § 26 UrhG.

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Celine Heß
Department Modern and Contemporary Art
Phone: +49 30 2266 770 111

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Auction 158