Art Calendar 15 January 2022

The Geringer Collection and its auction at Ketterer Kunst -

one of the most important collections of expressionist art is sold at auction

ART HIGHLIGHT 2022

It is the news for lovers of expressionism. The collection of the entrepreneur Hermann Gerlinger, which until now has hung in museums, will be put on the market with a large number of important works in initially four special catalogs and a gradual sale within about four years. The proceeds will go to three charitable institutions. The German auction house Ketterer Kunst, known as a specialist in Expressionism, has been commissioned to carry out the project. 

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's oil painting "The Blue Girl in the Sun" is considered one of the highlights.

The collection

The Würzburg engineer and entrepreneur in the sanitary and installation industry, Hermann Gerlinger was a Brücke collector with heart and soul and is today one of the best-known Brücke connoisseurs. Since the 1950s, he has amassed one of the most important collections of German Expressionist art. The focus is on works by Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, who founded the "Brücke" in Dresden in 1905. The collection includes about 1,000 paintings, hand drawings, watercolors, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, sculptures and numerous documents. Professors Gerlinger and Spielmann, together with Hermann Gerlinger, wrote a collection catalog, "Die Maler der Brücke" ("The Painters of the Bridge"), which is a standard work of Expressionist literature. The catalog documents not only the history and significance of the artists' group, but also the lives of the great Brücke artists in a unique unity. Brücke exhibitions are among the most popular public events on the art scene.

Regarding the auction, the collector, who celebrated his 90th birthday last year, says that it was on display in three renowned museums for almost three decades. It was the crowning achievement of his almost 70 years of collecting that it was accessible there both to friends of the bridge and to specialists from the scientific world. According to the entrepreneur, however, the time has now come to make the works directly available to the next generation of collectors and to carry on the fascination for this art and preserve it for the future. Most recently, the collection was on display at the Buchheim Museum on Lake Starnberg. The loan agreement was already terminated by mutual agreement in September 2021 and the works returned. For an exhibition that will run from July 16 to November 13, 2022, another 14 paintings were loaned.

Ketterer Kunst

Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and head of Ketterer Kunst, explains: "Professor Gerlinger's spectacular decision gives the next generation of collectors a unique opportunity. They can now acquire particularly interesting and important collector's items of German Expressionism. As a result, the Brücke will once again become a topic of conversation in the art market and far beyond. For many collectors, especially younger ones in Germany and abroad, it will thus become a concrete topic for the first time. This will also benefit the Brücke and the Brücke artists themselves." 

The proceeds will go to three charitable institutions: The German Foundation for Monument Protection, BUND Nature Conservation and the Juliusspital Foundation in Würzburg. 

Ketterer Kunst (www.kettererkunst.de and www.ketterer-internet-auktion.de) is based in Munich and has branches in Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf. The auction house focuses on art from the 19th to 21st centuries and valuable books. According to the 2021 semi-annual report of the artprice database, Ketterer Kunst is the only family-owned company with the highest turnover in the global top 15. 

www.kettererkunst.de

By Renzo F. 15. January 2022