It’s Oktoberfest in London as German artists and collectors dominate the Frieze auctions and London’s museums and media. Above is the Christie’s preview video of their single-owner sale of works from the Essl collection. Below is an excerpt from Sotheby’s description of its own German works (and assorted other German art events in London this month):
London is having a German art moment this autumn – Anslem Kiefer is already drawing in the crowds at the Royal Academy, Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010 opens at Tate Modern on 9 October, while the British Museum’s new show Germany Memories of a Nation is currently the subject of a series on BBC Radio 4 and is open from 16 October.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions on 17–18 October also feature a range of works by artists from Germany including Andreas Gursky, Gerhard Richter, Neo Rauch, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Candida Höfer and Albert Oehlen. Five key works, however, come from the enfant-terrible of German art, Martin Kippenberger, led by his 1992 self-portrait, Ohne Titel (Meine Lügen Sind Ehrlich). This colossal work is a masterpiece of the artist’s acclaimed body of self-images in which Kippenberger emulates and undoes the romantic ideal of the artist as heroic genius
Contemporary Germany: Kippenberger, Polke and Beyond (Sotheby’s)