Torn Eggs, War Experiences and Floating Balloons
Whimsical sculptures and installations by international names such as Lucio Fontana, Shinkichi Tajiri and Jeppe Hein lead us into a world of innovative and untraditional ways of approaching art, as we present modern art from around 1900 and up until the present at this summer's Live Auction in Copenhagen.
Lucio Fontana’s Brass Eggs
In the 1970s a Danish art collector displayed a fine sense of quality and good foresight when he bought a significant amount of international works of art. We now have the pleasure of presenting about 30 works from his collection at the summer’s Live Auction on Tuesday 8 June at 4 pm. One of the highlights from the collection is a double piece by the Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theoretician Lucio Fontana (1899-1969). The work consists of a pair of egg-shaped brass sculptures with the title "Concetto spaziale, Natura" from 1967. The Danish collector bought them in 1971 at Gallery Leger in Copenhagen and with the current estimate of between DKK 700,000-800,000 in mind, it can certainly be described as a fine purchase economically as well as artistically. Fontana often used the shape of eggs across different artistic genres, but he is perhaps best known for his cuts in monochrome canvases. In his series of sculptures entitled “Nature” he has transferred the method with the cuts and holes to make the space behind the surface of the work visible. This can also be seen in the offered pair of eggs from the series. It is very rare to see Fontana’s work up for auction in our part of the world, and these two eggs have been in the family’s ownership since the initial purchase and not on the auction market during this period.
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Shinkichi Tajiri’s Trash SculpturesAs an example of his broad interest in art, the Danish owner’s collection also includes the sculpture “Is it a bird, is it a plane?” from 1963 by the Japanese American artist Shinkichi Tajiri (1923-2009). In his work, he was first and foremost a sculptor, but he also worked with media such as photography and film – he won several prizes in the latter medium, including for the controversial documentary about the Danish pornographic actress Bodil Joensen in 1970. Tajiri received his artistic education at the Art Institute of Chicago and later in Paris under people such as Fernand Léger. Tajiri found his artistic starting point in his original nationality and his own education across several continents. Therefore, one can find traces of both Asian, American and European sources of inspiration in his work. In Paris, he met CoBrA artists and was invited to exhibit at the “International Exhibition of Experimental Art (CoBrA)” in Amsterdam in 1949 and in Liège in 1951, respectively. That the offered sculpture may conjure up images of trash is no coincidence since Tajiri was one of the first artists, who used trash as material for his artwork. At a first glance, the piece may appear humoristic with its coloured aluminium pieces placed on high legs resembling a wobbly insect, but the theme is far more serious in its context. Tajiri served as a soldier in Europe during the Second World War, and according to himself, the war became a catalyst for his artistic work. His art is often presented as images of his war experiences, and with this in mind the offered sculpture can be seen as an expression of the devastating period, wounded soldiers and the fear of military planes in the sky above. |
Balloon Art by Jeppe HeinContemporary art is one of our major focus areas at the moment, and this time the highlight within this field is four reflective and coloured balloons. The artist behind the work is Jeppe Hein, who is a Danish artist, but with an international profile since his works have garnered acclaim all over the world from Tokyo to Seattle. In 2019, Central Park in New York was the stage for his interactive, meditative and climate-debating work "Breathe with Me", which invited 3,000 random people to paint blue brushstrokes guided by their own breathing on white walls in the park. In his art, Hein deals primarily with installations about spaces that challenge our experiences of them – whether indoors or outside in public areas. With the offered balloons, he has added his characteristic playful touch to the art, and coincidentally, 17 similar balloons are currently floating under the ceiling at the Kongens Nytorv metro station in central Copenhagen – a few hundred meters from our auction house. |
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For further information, please contact:
Niels Raben: +45 8818 1181 · nr@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Niels Boe Hauggaard: +45 8818 1182 · nbh@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Kathrine Eriksen: +45 8818 1184 · ke@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Peter Beck (Aarhus): +45 8818 1186 · pb@bruun-rasmussen.dk