It is time again for Linienspiel & Farbenrausch!

Thole Rotermund Kunsthandel is pleased to present an outstanding selection of works on paper in April 2023 in the joint exhibition Linienspiel & Farbenrausch together with Artcurial and Kunkel Fine Arts! 

"Wäsche am Strand", Gabriele Münter's best-known colour linocut, was created in the early phase of her work during her stay with her partner Kandinsky in Paris in 1906/07. Münter's joy in experimentation and astonishing mastery of the linocut can be excellently traced in the example of our print. Our print is a precious rarity and is one of the most sought-after and rarest prints of modern art. Apart from the three copies in the Lenbachhaus in Munich, 13 others are known - each one unique in itself, as Münter combines up to six different colour blocks each time. This additionally lends the work a serial character reminiscent of Andy Warhol's famous silkscreens.
 
Look forward to the powerful "Selbstbildnis" by Max Beckmann from 1936: Beckmann is one of the most important German painters and graphic artists - as masterpieces of Expressionism, his paintings fetch record sums at auctions. And his drawings are also masterly, as our remarkable sheet impressively shows: The motif concentrates on the artist's face, filling the entire picture. Beckmann completely dispenses with the depiction of space or thematic context. He succeeds in creating an expression in a few lines through the spontaneously placed pencil alone, which makes his tension palpable.

Another treasure is the drawing "Ohne Titel" by Wassily Kandinsky, 1922! As one of the pioneers of pure, object-free drawing, he opened up the world of concrete art, committed only to its own expressiveness, with a few bold ink pen strokes, thus liberating it from its centuries-old orientation to the principle of likeness. For Wassily Kandinsky, detachment from reality and creation from pure imagination meant painting like a musician: in our sheet, the strong dots, the faintly drawn lines and geometric shapes and, above all, the crossed, strong diagonal line structures literally ring out!
 
In 1924 Fernand Léger, together with Man Ray, directed the futuristic film "Le Ballet Méchanique", which is considered the first film without a script. Inspired by the new pictorial experience of the close-up, Léger dissolves the reference of things, his objects act for themselves in space, freed from any gravity and develop an independent, plastic beauty. This is also the case in our characteristic pencil drawing "Ohne Titel" from 1930 with the accentuated contour lines typical of Léger. On the front of the sheet there is a dedication to Margaret Scolari (wife of MOMA's founding director Alfred Barr, with whom she also worked intensively). This drawing seems to be a harbinger for the first exhibition of Léger's work at MOMA, New York, later that year.

Linienspiel und Farbenrausch
18. - 22. April 2023
ARTCURIAL Deutschland
Galeriestraße 2b
80539 München

 
Sneak Preview: Dienstag, 18. April, 17 – 19 Uhr
Vernissage: Mittwoch, 19. April, 17 - 20 Uhr
 
Art Talk: „Insta, Apps & Co. – Kunstmarkt im digitalen Wandel”: 
Donnerstag, 20. April, 18 Uhr mit anschließendem Cocktail bis 20 Uhr 
Speaker: Catharina Recker (My Art Marketing), Johannes von Mallinckrodt (Collecto), Miriam Krohne (Artcurial), Alexander Kunkel (Kunkel Fine Art), Moderation Thole Rotermund

art Karlsruhe 2023

Soon it will be that time again: floating ceilings, vastness as far as the eye can see - and art everywhere. For four days a year, art KARLSRUHE gives the art scene a live opportunity to present itself to a broad public. Four halls, a large entrance and a leafy inner courtyard provide space for the smallest graphics to room-sized sculptures. From classical modernism to contemporary art. Our preparations are already in full swing!

 

Happy Holidays

Dear friends of the arts!

The joy of numerous encounters with fairs and events that opened again on a regular basis can be identified as one of the factors that made last year a good year!

 

This year, Art Karlsruhe opened exceptionally in July and nevertheless proved to be the usual successful fair in the southwest that we know and particularly appreciate. 
After an eventful summer with an exciting art trip we organised with the 'MS Europa 2', the preparation of our little August Macke brochure - and a bit of a breather, came POSITIONS in Berlin Tempelhof in September with its upscale-eclectic mix of modern, postmodern and contemporary art. 
At HIGHLIGHTS Munich in October, we made a special discovery: the wonderful drawing by August Macke "Frau vor Hutladen", 1913. A true gem by the great artist of Classical Modernism that attracted a lot of attention. 
Back in its traditional place in November, Art Cologne then opened its doors as the oldest art fair in the world - with strict admission controls, because after all, not everything can stay as it was. We were all the more pleased about the many visitors, some of whom we hadn't seen for a long time. 

Our first event in 2023 starts in March with our small joint exhibition "Linienspiel und Farbenrausch" in Munich and the very successfully introduced Berlin Paper Positions in April.

Beyond that, we have a lot planned - a new publication, a solo show in Karlsruhe, an exhibition in an unusual location; we are already busy preparing. 


2022 was an eventful year that proved to us once again how important and irreplaceable personal exchange is. Wilhelm von Humboldt described this conviction quite wonderfully: "Basically, it is always the connections with people that give life its value."

In this spirit, we would like to thank you especially for your trust, stimulating encounters and inspirations. And to wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Hopeful New Year!

 

Yours
Thole Rotermund with Dr. Regelind Heimann, Kerstin Peters and Sandra Rademacher

Thole Rotermund Kunsthandel at the world's oldest art fair

As the oldest art fair in the world, ART COLOGNE will once again be the most important industry meeting place in Germany from 17 to 20 November. Thole Rotermund Kunsthandel presents a top-class range of works by August Macke, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Hermann Max Pechstein, Alexej von Jawlensky, Lyonel Feininger and others, true to our motto: classic, modern, paper!

Of particular note is August Macke's drawing "Frau vor Hutladen" (Woman in front of a hat shop), 1913, whose equivalent, painted in oil, is part of the permanent collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich. We are honouring this wonderful work from Macke's time in Switzerland with its own publication, which, among other things, reveals the remarkable provenance history. Another highlight is the surprisingly cheerful and colourful watercolour by Max Beckmann from 1949, while Hermann Max Pechstein's drawings from 1937 show the great "Brücke" artist's retreat into nature. The strong character of Franz Radziwill's "Street Scene with Red Balloons" impressively documents his initial, expressionist style phase and outstanding painting skills.

Around 1916, Paul Klee began to mount selected works on paper on cardboard and to apply the so-called margin line, a horizontal line below the title. Only then did they become definitive, new works. In the case of our "Two Small Watercolours", the result even receives the highest distinction from the artist: "Special Class" - marked by his own hand on the backing cardboard with "S Kl". "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes it visible" - following his own credo, Paul Klee creates imaginary space at an imaginary time, with imaginary movement, in his 1921 ink drawing "Heimgartenanlage". And he declares: "Art relates to creation in a parable-like manner."

Hall 11.1 / Stand C410

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

August Macke's "Frau vor Hutladen" - A small format of great importance

We are very happy to be able to present August Macke's "Frau vor Hutladen" (Woman in front of a Hat Shop) from 1913 at this year's HIGHLIGHTS Art Fair Munich, a magnificent drawing! Such a dense, masterfully drawn work by the great Expressionist is indeed extremely rare on the international art market. The motif corresponds quite closely to the important painting of the same name in the Lenbachhaus Munich. In order to highlight not only the art-historical significance but also the highly exciting provenance history, which we have been able to trace back almost to its creation, we have dedicated a separate publication to this magnificent drawing. Until Sunday, 23 October, you have the opportunity to see the "Frau vor Hutladen" at our stand!

 

HIGHLIGHTS Internationale Kunstmesse


Thole Rotermund Kunsthandel at the HIGHLIGHTS International Art Fair Munich 2022

Just in time for the opening of the HIGHLIGHTS art fair, we will publish a special publication on a very special work by August Macke. You can look forward to it! This work will be flanked by selected dynamic pen and pencil drawings by the artist.

"Academic work is only the foundation to the formation of a serious study of art, only the stimulating. I almost always have the sketchbook at hand on the street, so that I can gradually fully master movements of people and animals, because no professor teaches you that, and it is the most important thing there is." (August Macke, 1.12.1904) - Macke acted independently of bourgeois conventions and of the prevailing conservative view of art. - One of our favourite artist personalities!

Another special highlight of the fair is Gabriele Münter's "Wäsche am Strand" from 1907/08. This probably most important colour linocut by the artist was created in the early phase of her work during her stay with her partner Kandinsky in Paris in 1906/07. Both artists discovered the linocut for themselves and perfected it. Our print is a precious little rarity and is one of the most sought-after and rarest modernist prints. Apart from the three copies in the Lenbachhaus in Munich, 13 others are known - each one unique in itself, as Münter combines up to six different colour blocks anew each time. This lends the work an additional serial character that seems to anticipate Andy Warhol's pop art.

 

We also show wonderful works by Max Pechstein, Max Beckmann, Alexej von Jawlensky, Emil Nolde, Herbert Böttger, Franz Radziwill and Lyonel Feininger.

 

Highlights International Art Fair Munich at the Residenz,

20 - 23 October 2022 (Preview 18 & 19 October)

paper positions hamburg - the show

will take place in Hamburg for the second time at the end of September.

From 29 September to 2 October 2022, the works of over 30 international artists will be exhibited at paper positions hamburg in the centrally located Jupiter, the former Karstadt Sport, on Mönckebergstraße. Selected Hamburg galleries and a small selection of exhibitors from other parts of Germany will each present an artistic position of contemporary and modern art with, from and on paper.

The principle of colour
Eduard Bargheer and Rolf Hans in dialogue

If he had to name a colour theory, Paul Klee wrote in 1922, it would have to be Phillipp Otto Runge's "Colour Sphere" of 1809, for this was and would remain the only one that dealt with colour in a way that "seems to be closest to us painters". It allows the painter to be free and opens up all possibilities. For Runge, the language of the picture is not determined by nature, but as something shaped is completely unbound by its scientifically assumed reality. Thus, Runge's theory of colour is a view of how one communicates with colour in a picture, not as a symbolic or allegorical but as a direct, sensual language. 

In our presentation for this year's paper positions Hamburg, we juxtapose two artists who, each in their very individual approach to colour, open up a surprising field of tension and illustrate the freedom of painting:

Rolf Hans (1938 - 1996).

Inspired by the colour field painting of the 'abstract expressionists', colour is the sole vehicle of expression for Rolf Hans. Mood and feeling are conveyed solely through the emotional power of the colouring, which in its elementary effect allows the viewer to experience "nature like religion".

Hans has been drawn to Ticino time and again since 1967; the seclusion and unique beauty of the landscape inspire him anew each time he visits. He works here, "in nature by head." For Rolf Hans, this does not mean a lifelike reproduction of what he sees, but rather to convey the regularity of creation pictorially with his own instruments. In his works, Rolf Hans uses the "language of colours" to reveal inexhaustible variations on the sensation of the infinity of nature, which moves man in the depths of his existence. At the same time, he is aware that the nature of nature is quite different from the nature of his works. For while the latter possesses scales that are designed for variety and duration, his depictions are transcripts of momentary impressions and thus represent sections of this whole. All the more he strives to find a universally valid statement. In this, Hans follows the landscape painting of the 19th century. Like Philip Otto Runge, he uses nature as a model "to depict the mathematics of the organic as the logic of its statement. Hans does this impressively with extremely minimal painterly means. He finds his statement solely through the colourfulness that shines from within and the "communication" of the tones with each other. 

Eduard Bargheer (1901 - 1979)

Eduard Bargheer's art is one of the most astonishing and exciting achievements of modernism. The principle of his work is transfiguration, the sign-like representation of reality - he works as if triggered by the visible world. All of Bargheer's paintings are based on an abstracting process that creates an exciting relationship between form and colour. The coloured surface forms its own space in the overall composition and often does not coincide at all with the preliminary drawing and the linear structure of the picture. Under the impression of the Mediterranean abundance of light - which he experiences in his adopted home, the island of Ischia - the colour additionally serves to express the harmony of colour and light that Bargheer strives for. The lightness of the watercolours are the ideal means for him to achieve this: "I always called the watercolour by its first name, and I always called the oil painting by its first name," is how the artist describes his relationship.
Again and again, Bargheer wrestles impressive metaphors of high intensity from nature. What seems to come so easily today is in fact hard-won - both artistically and socially: elementary visions in the confrontation with the surface in which ever new ideas of colour are found. In this way, he comes ever closer to the compositions of his admired friend Paul Klee, who also saw the complicated in the simple.

Einblicke. Das Magazin, Ed. 1

Hot off the press - our new magazine Einblicke will give you interesting “insights” into our work and behind the scenes. What moves us, with whom do we have to do, who supports us, which places play a role for us? To do this, we visited our frame builder in his Munich workshop, looked over the shoulder of our paper restorer at work, talked to the organizers of the Munich HIGHLIGHTS and took a trip into the past with a feature on the subject of provenance research. And we will show you which new works we have on offer and what is still coming up this year.

In addition to the joy of art, in our multi-layered work there is also the joy of beautiful things and special places. Here you can read in which libraries, gardens, restaurants, hotels and museums we like to be! We will also reveal very personal anecdotes and encounters with artists and works. Our magazine should inspire you - with the enthusiasm that drives us every day.