Germann Auctionhouse Zurich
Part I: Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculptures
Monday, 19 June 2023, 06:00 pm

Salomé, Liebes Paare (Lovers)

Lot 93

Salomé, 1954 (DE)

Liebes Paare (Lovers), 1983

Acrylic on canvas.
H 2000 mm W 2400 mm.

Verso inscribed on label: Liebes Paare.

CHF15'000 / 20'000
EUR15'000 / 20'000
USD16'000 / 22'000

Hammer Price: CHF 13'000

Provenance:
Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris (verso with label), acquired directly from the artist;
Swiss Private Collection.

Annotation:

"Ich habe Respekt vor dem schwarzen oder weißen Quadrat von Herrn Malewitsch, weil diese Bilder eben zu einer Zeit gemalt wurden, als sie etwas ausgelöst haben. Aber heute in unserer Zeit, wo alles nur noch aus Kisten, Quadern, Hochhäusern besteht, wo alles nur noch viereckig ist und wo es keine romantische Form mehr gibt, keine libidinöse Form, da langweilt mich diese Minimalkunst."¹

Translation (from above)¹: "I have respect for Mr. Malevich's black or white square, because these pictures were painted at a time when they triggered something. But today, in our time, when everything consists only of boxes, cuboids, skyscrapers, where everything is only square and where there is no longer any romantic form, no libidinal form, I am bored with this minimal art."

Salomé's quote suggests the loud, neo-expressive and sensual art of the "Neuen Wilden" as a counter-reaction to the quiet and intellectualized minimal art of the 60s and 70s. The contrast was conceivable great: young artists such as Rainer Fetting or Salomé, who joined together in loose groups at the end of the 70s and heralded a real renaissance of representational painting, sometimes expressed their own mental sensitivities, sexual obsessions and scenes from the metropolitan subculture on large-scale canvases. The spirit of Berlin with its punk and new wave culture was formative for this new subjectivity, which asserted itself with spontaneous - powerful brushstrokes and an irrepressible desire for color.

¹Salomé, in: Heinrich Klotz. Die Neuen Wilden in Berlin. Stuttgart 1987, page 160.