Events celebrate 90 years of Bauhaus

Bauhaus Reloaded Los 42: Weissenhof'-Sessel MR-20, Kunstler Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Hersteller: Berliner Metallgewerbe Josef, Berlin, 1927. Schätzpreis 15.000 €. Foto von Quittenbaum.
Weissenhof'-Chair MR-20, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Manufactured in 1927 by the Berliner Metallgewerbe Josef, Berlin. Estimated price euro15,000. Photo courtesy Quittenbaum.
Weissenhof’-Chair MR-20, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Manufactured in 1927 by the Berliner Metallgewerbe Josef, Berlin. Estimated price euro15,000. Photo courtesy Quittenbaum.

It is not often that a fusion of personalities and talents completely changes popular style. Yet architect Walter Gropius and his little group of artist/teachers and pupils left a lasting impact on everything from furniture and toys, to windows and buildings. The year was 1919 and the place, which many Germans don’t even realize, was Weimar, Germany.
Hence the name of the current multilocation exhibit “Der Bauhaus Kommt aus Weimar,” (The Bauhaus Comes from Weimar), on view until July 5 in this lovely city of Goethe, Schiller and Art Nouveau. www.das-bauhaus-kommt.de

“In the beginning it was not easy. Gropius was asked to bring these two art schools, the Kunstgewerbeschule and the Kunstschule, together,” said Arthur Floss of Quittenbaums, Munich. “But he pushed the curriculum and got the right teachers.”

Continue reading

So Far, So Good, in Spite of Crisis

Image courtesy Ketterer Kunst.
Ketterer Kunst sold Emil Nolde's 'Landscape' last summer for 900,000 Euro ($1.2 million). Image courtesy Ketterer Kunst.
Ketterer Kunst sold Emil Nolde’s ‘Landscape’ last summer for 900,000 Euro ($1.2 million). Image courtesy Ketterer Kunst.

One needs a crystal ball to predict how the world economic crisis will affect the German-language art and antique markets. Spring has been a flurry of activity for the auction houses. The glossy, color catalogs are just as thick. A full program of summer antique shows and trodel markets is planned. The museums are not deaccessioning, but selectively buying and restoring to improve their collections.

It’s not that the bad news hasn’t reached us yet. The German economy is reported to be in the worst condition it has been in for 60 years. Export levels are down. The country is facing a growing average unemployment rate of 8.6 percent. And yet …

Ketterer Kunst GmbH & Co, KG, Munich, reports that the position of the art market in Germany is stable. According to spokesperson Michaela Derra, contrary to the price beating some international auction houses are taking, the German auction houses have not experienced this. She credits this to selling to an exclusive, established and growing market of art lovers, not investors.

Continue reading

Auction Talk Germany: April 2009

Water has an undeniable allure. We gravitate toward the tranquil lapping of rivers, lakes and oceans as an escape from our landlocked lives. We imagine strolling the beach footage of our waterfront home or retiring to a tiny cottage by the sea.

But what would it be like to live directly on the water? And not just in a seasonal yacht or houseboat, but in a spacious, sleekly designed, year-round home?

“Since I was a kid, I always dreamed of living on the water, designing a house that would sit directly on the water,” German architect Martin André Förster told Auction Central News.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Förster’s design for a floating events platform was built. He toyed with the idea of placing a house on such a platform, further developing this concept until 2001, when he designed the first “Floating Home.”

Continue reading