Rauschenberg, Chadwick and Armitage at auction

Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen dives into international art history at this summer’s auction, led by Robert Rauschenberg’s ”Harvest” collage and sculptures by the British artists Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage alongside a newly discovered Scandinavian art collection.

"When we place a spotlight on international art this summer, we are proud to present the “Harvest” collage from 2007 by Robert Rauschenberg, who in the 1950s represented a transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art on the American art scene. His career was long and versatile. Over a period lasting six decades he worked with different artistic expressions within painting, sculptures and performance. The collage is part of the “Runts” series, which is one of Rauschenberg’s final works, yet it still manages to capture the qualities of his work and his experimental approach to art," says Niels Raben, head of Modern Art at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers. 

One of the often-used genres in Rauschenberg's work was the collage, which he created with the use of clippings from magazines, textiles and stuffed animals in the attempt to highlight the beauty of everyday objects. The ”Runts” series is more personal because it consists of Rauschenberg’s own photographs from Florida, where he lived for a number of years. In the present work, the images allude to an industrial environment and create a simple composition around an empty space.

British Sculptures – Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage

When it comes to 20th century British art history, the sculptors Lynn Chadwick and Kenneth Armitage cannot be overlooked. The former’s two-part sculpture "Two Reclining Figures" consists of a man and a woman modelled in angular shapes. It was made during Chadwick’s most productive period in the 1970s, where he with inspiration from the indigenous decorative crafts from the Easter Island developed his own unique sculptures that often depict the relationship between humans and their movements, interaction and sexuality. Chadwick’s career took off in earnest when he in 1956 amazed everyone at the Venice Biennale and as the youngest person ever won the exhibition’s coveted sculpture prize. Today his work is on display at leading museums such as MoMA, Tate Gallery and Centre Georges Pompidou. As a contemporary artist of Chadwick, Armitage also moves on the borders between the figurative and the abstract. In the sculpture up for auction, entitled ”Two Seated Figures” (1957), two human-like figures have almost melted together in a solid bronze piece, wherefrom only their heads, arms and legs protrude.

A Newly Discovered Scandinavian Art Collection

It is not every day that we receive a collection of art that has been stored away on a loft in Stockholm for 50 years. Nevertheless, this is the case at the summer’s auction, and with the 22 works from this newly discovered collection we turn our eyes even further out into the world. This includes the Japanese artist Fumio Yusimora's sculpture "Sewing Machine" from the 1970s. After having emigrated to the United States in 1963, he established his own workshop in New York, where he replicated household items in linden tree sculptures in a 1:1 ratio. He aptly described his works as "Ghosts of the Original Objects", and his background from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, where he was taught to make traditional decorative art, is visible in these realistic sculptures. One of the other artists from this Scandinavian collection is the American abstract expressionist Thornton Willis, who in his work was interested in the abstract painting's relation to the physical world. "Summersuit" from 1982 is one of the main works of his "Wedge" series, where the artist works with strong colours, zigzag patterns and sail-like triangles.

International Auction in Copenhagen

Auction: 6-7 June in Bredgade 33, Copenhagen

Preview: 24-29 May at the same address

View the entire auction of modern art