Press release -
A Dance Worth Millions – Danish and International Art Sold at Live Auction in Copenhagen
The saleroom was packed and the air full of bids at yesterday’s auction for artwork by international and Danish modern artists. While works by Gunther Förg and Willem de Kooning put up a good show, it was the Danish painter Harald Giersing who ran off with the top hammer price of DKK 3.1 million (EUR 540,000 including buyer’s premium).
"It is an auction record both for a work by Giersing but also for a Danish modernist painting altogether. The painting is Giersing's interpretation of a famous ballet scene between the two Russian ballet stars Mikhail Fokin and Vera Fokina who performed all over the world with great success, including in Denmark at the Royal Danish Theatre in 1918. Giersing’s painting is from the same year and based on a photograph of the two dancers. "Fokin and Fokina" is a wonderful example of how Giersing was fully committed to the Cubist depiction of the human body's movements. Even though the dancers stood completely still as the original portrait photograph was taken, they appear in perpetual motion in the painting through the use of the Cubist idiom," says Niels Raben, Head of Bruun Rasmussen's Department of Modern Art.
An Evening of International Art
The evening auction offered a wealth of modern art, which could also be felt in the number of telephone bids and guests who were present in the saleroom. Among the international artists up for auction was the German Gunther Förg, known for his abstract-geometric style. His work achieved a great hammer price of DKK 1,3 million (EUR 225,000 including buyer’s premium)for a painting at the auction.
A work by the Dutch-American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning went for DKK 1.5 million (EUR 260,000 including buyer’s premium). Like Giersing, de Kooning was interested in the process of reinterpretation. Where Giersing’s starting point was a photograph, de Kooning worked with one of his earlier paintings, "The Dancer", which he outlined on a piece of vellum and drew the abstract figures from the painting. On the one side of the work, paint from the original work of art can be seen, while on the other side there is an additional drawing of the lines that were visible through the vellum.
Celebrating CoBrA
In a beautiful blend of international and Danish art, the auction Tuesday evening also featured a large selection of art from the CoBrA group, which, like Bruun Rasmussen, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The group was represented by names such as Karel Appel with a work that went for DKK 480,000 (EUR 84,000 including buyer’s premium). The Danes from CoBrA also joined in, and the most impressive hammer price was for a work by Carl-Henning Pedersen, which was sold for DKK 850,000 (EUR 148,000 including buyer’s premium).
Topics
Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers is one of Scandinavia’s leading international auction houses, and one of Denmark’s oldest. It all started on 6 October 1948, when Arne Bruun Rasmussen conducted the first traditional auction in the saleroom at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen. Today, Jesper Bruun Rasmussen stands at the helm of the family-run business together with the third generation of the family, his son Frederik and daughter Alexa, and the company’s CEO Jakob Dupont.
In 2004, the first online auction was launched, and today the auction house has expanded to include departments in Copenhagen and Aarhus and representations in Sweden, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, Thailand and the US. About 100,000 lots are put up for auction each year at the traditional auctions and daily online auctions. Here you can bid on everything from art, antiques, modern design and jewellery to books, coins, stamps, wine and weaponry.
