A Conduit for Contemporary Art
We’re so excited – it’s almost electrifying! In 2020, we will strive to be an extra powerful conduit for Contemporary Art at our auctions. The Live Auction on 3-4 March, will be the first event where many of the artistic 'jolts’ created by some of the most interesting Danish and international artists of our time have found their way to our auction house.
Contemporary Jolts of Art
Contemporary Art is at its best when it can create awareness of our often paradoxical and confusing everyday life. In art, there is room for the quirky and unpredictable that like a jolt of electricity can shake up our everyday routines and provide us with new insights.
In recent years, we have seen a growing auction interest in Contemporary Art and a desire to learn more about what is happening in this part of the art world. That is why we have chosen 2020 as the year where we will add extra power to our promotion of Contemporary Art – from photography and prints to paintings and sculptures. The first event with this increased attention paid to the category will be at our Live Auction in March, where we can present a strong selection of both established names and auction debutants.
A Playful Clash
One of the debutants is the artist Morten Steen Hebsgaard, who is probably best known today for his role in the successful artist group A-kassen. Hebsgaard's works create a playful universe of quirky designs with videotapes, oranges, old period furniture, IKEA imitations and Rube Goldberg machines. The boundary between art and everyday items is broken down and the parts are transformed into absurd sculptures. This is also the case with the offered work "Survival of the Fittest" from 2006. Here two of the iconic Winther tricycles are designed to create inevitable conflict and clashes between the riders as a bittersweet reminder that Darwin's law is already in force on the playground.
A Fateful Crash
In Allan Otte’s "Smadret" (Wrecked) from 2007, the fateful crash between two yellow buses in the middle of a snowy and desolate landscape has already happened. The village church appears to be the only witness remaining. At first glance, the idiom seems hyper-realistic, but when looking closer the brush strokes transform into clear vertical and horizontal lines, almost like pixels on a screen. The unsettling and dreamlike expression of the work is emphasized by the artist's use of both sharpness and blurriness.
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Kvium's Tribute to Mertz
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The Danish painter Michael Kvium is also a part of the Contemporary Art category. In the work "Obey the Colors" he establishes a bridge between generations in his portrayal of a scruffy-looking artist in front of a red and blue painting – a tribute to the artist Albert Mertz. This artist’s favourite colours were precisely red and blue, and he would have turned 100 this year. Mertz was Kvium’s professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1990 Mertz starred in a film in which the young artists Kvium and Christian Lemmerz sit at Mertz's favourite pub, Andy's Bar, in Copenhagen. The two young artists are wearing large plastic ears and dutifully listen to the old master and his ruminations about the importance of art for the modern man – the words “Obey the Master” come to mind. |
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At the auction we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the multi-faceted artist and opinion former Mertz, who had a simplified and constructionist idiom combined with blue and red colours as his artistic focal point. His entire oeuvre stands as an insightful experiment with the forms of expression of the painting. The eye-catching works reflect an anarchistic and humorous attitude to art and the institution of art. View the selection of artwork by Mertz here |
Follow Contemporary Art with “Bruun Rasmussen Contemporary”
The fact that we now add extra power to our promotion of Contemporary Art means that in the future you can sign up to a separate newsletter about Contemporary Art. You can also stay up to date about the category through our blog and Instagram profile “Bruun Rasmussen Contemporary”.
In addition to the large selection of Contemporary Art at the Live Auction, you can already now look forward to our upcoming Online Auction of Contemporary Art this spring. The auction is open for consignments until 28 February.
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For further information, please contact:
Niels Boe Hauggaard: +45 8818 1182 · nbh@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Kathrine Eriksen: +45 8818 1184 · ke@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Christine Almlund: +45 8818 1216 · cal@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Stephanie Ingemann-Petersen: +45 8818 1185 · sip@bruun-rasmussen.dk
Peter Beck (Aarhus): +45 8818 1186 · pb@bruun-rasmussen.dk