Trampedach’s Turning Point in New York

At the summer auction in Bredgade, we can present a number of intense paintings by Kurt Trampedach (1943-2013). They all come from the collection of the American art dealer Allan Stone, who was considered one of New York's most respected art dealers from the 1950s and up until his death in 2006. His exhibitions drew great crowds and had the added value of his equally famous personal art essays about the exhibited names in the gallery on the Upper East Side. The meeting with Stone gave Trampedach a foothold in a world far from the Copenhagen art scene.

A Meteoric Rise and Subsequent Fall

Trampedach experienced an early breakthrough in Denmark. He had an international outlook and was inspired by artists such as Rembrandt, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon, but he quickly found an idiom that stood apart from all others. Up through the 1970s he became one of the most celebrated artists in Denmark, but he was also an eccentric and did not thrive in his homeland. He therefore moved into voluntary exiles in both the French part of the Basque region and in the art metropolis of New York.

The Exile in New York

A portion of the offered works were made during Trampedach’s time in New York between 1983-90, which marked a personal as well as an artistic turning point for Trampedach. In his studio in SoHo, he painted some of the best works of his artistic career, and, according to his friend and art critic Mikael Wivel, the works can even be seen as some of the best that Danish art contributed internationally during the 20th century. The artwork from New York continues the autobiographical line from Trampedach’s early oeuvre and retains the familiar manic, panicked and wild moods, but at the same time they represent a radical new departure from the artist’s previous work.

Strong Colours and the Memories of Childhood

Firstly, strong colours such as yellow, red and blue find their way to the canvases and replace the usual earth tones. Secondly, his favourite motif becomes the characteristic child figure with its forsaken expression that reflects the artist's psychological process of facing the demons of childhood in order to succeed as a person and an artist. The auction's works include, among others, a painting from 1986 of a boy wrapped in a sheep's skin and with a view to a paintbrush in the foreground. In another painting the child looks anxiously ahead, while the naked primitive figures in the background are intimidatingly close to him. The very same child figure has in "Fetish Baby II" come out of the canvas to stand on its own feet as a mummy-like sculpture.

On the opening day of the preview, on 26 May at 4 pm, gallerist Patricia Asbæk will give a talk about Trampedach entitled “Anecdotes about Kurt Trampedach – the artist and the friend.” Everyone is welcome!

Auction: Tuesday 7 June at 4 pm in Bredgade 33, Copenhagen

Preview: 26-30 May at the same address

See the complete selection of Trampedach

See the complete selection of the auction

Read more about the auction and download catalogues

Read about bidding