Modern | Post War | Contemporary

Modern
The works from an outstanding German private collection will be presented under the title “Departure, Form, Colour”. Since the 1980s, the German collector couple has assembled works from Classical Modernity at their domicile in South America. Among the main works is Hermann Max Pechstein’s Der Jüngling (The Youth) from 1917 (estimate: €220,000–320,000). It belongs to the popular series of South Sea pictures that rarely appear on the international auction market. The painting is testimony to the profoundly influential time Pechstein spent in the former German colony of Palau in 1914. At the same time, its bright, vibrant colours make it an outstanding example of Expressionism. Another expressive work by Pechstein is the landscape painting Dorfhäuser (Village Houses) from 1921 (estimate: €300,000–500,000). It is one of those special, masterful works Max Pechstein was able to produce time and again when he was surrounded by the tranquillity of the village of Dangast. One of Alexej von Jawlensky’s first Murnau paintings is Blick auf Murnau (View of Murnau) from around 1908 (estimate: €200,000–300,000). The entire painting is suffused with a glowing, colourful evening mood and is considered a key work for Jawlensky’s transition to expressionist art. Further works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel from this collection are to be found in the special chapter “120 Years of Brücke”.

Masks are a recurrent motif in the oeuvre of Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum. Nussbaum was persecuted during the Nazi era, lived in hiding and in 1944 was murdered in Auschwitz. He created Still Life with Mask and Sweater in 1935 during his time in exile (estimate: €100,000–150,000). Here, too, the mask is more than a mere prop – it is a powerful symbol of his own situation as a persecuted artist who had to be in hiding as he feared for his life by being exposed as a Jew.

Der singende Mann (The Singing Man) by Ernst Barlach is one of the most iconic artworks of the 20th century and is arguably the German sculptor’s most popular motif. The bronze on offer now is a special and rare specimen in several respects: it is the first lifetime cast made by Noack in Berlin in 1930 as copy 1/10. That year the artist’s legendary gallerist, Alfred Flechtheim, and various museums dedicated several exhibitions to him on occasion of his 60th birthday. Furthermore, this specimen shows “more modelling” on its surface (expert opinion by Hans Barlach, 1990), as the artist reworked the model after the second casting. And so the bronze is impressive for its authentic and lively surface structure, which is further enhanced by the dark patina that takes on a reddish hue. 

Post War
A first-rate collection is entitled “Collecting with an Exquisite Eye – Works from a Private Collection in Cologne”. One highlight of this collection is Yves Klein’s Éponge bleue (Blue Sponge) from 1959 (estimate: €350,000–550,000). The sponge is one of Klein’s iconic materials. As a vehicle for the characteristic IKB (International Klein Blue) it makes the colour shine with extraordinary intensity and depth. Klein’s sponges are rarely to be found on the international auction market in this size. A work with rarity value and great spatial presence is Antoni Tàpie’s Red Painting from 1961 (estimate: €250,000–350,000). Exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1962 as part of his first retrospective exhibition in America, it is a rare work from his important creative period with a distinct visual language. Here material, colour and symbol become vehicles of intellectual/spiritual and existential experience.

Josef Albers’ series Homage to the Square, which he created from 1950 until his death in 1976, forms the centrepiece of his oeuvre. After decades of experimental work at the Bauhaus and in the U.S., Albers kept returning to the square in this series of works. The maximally reduced shape allowed him to systematically explore the relativity and perception of colour. In 1969 he produced a study in the – for a preparatory work – unusually large size of 81 x 81 cm for the painting Morning Sight from the Homage to the Square series (estimate: €300,000–500,000). 

The painting Beautiful Lady from 1984 is by the grand master of Pop Art (estimate: €300,000–500,000). Andy Warhol personally asked the sitter if she would let him paint her and gave the work its title. The painting was in a German private collection since the 1980s and is now being offered on the market for the first time. It is an extraordinarily beautiful and charismatic portrait of a woman. 

He ranks first this year in Capital magazine's Art Compass and Monopol's ranking of the most influential people in the art world: Gerhard Richter. Eight editions from Richter's oeuvre will be offered at the Evening Sale, providing the occasion for a special evening with Hubertus Butin. The curator and author of Richter's catalogue raisonné will give a lecture at Van Ham on 27 November 2025, entitled “Curtain up: High-caliber editions by Gerhard Richter – their significance and history.” The works on offer include Richter's Curtain from 2012, a gray painting (Vermalung) from 1971, and the copy 1 of 100 of the Goldberg Variations from 1984.

Contemporary
Karin Kneffel is known for her hyper-realistic paintings in which she tends to use everyday motifs and enrich them with enigmatic elements. Her work Gitter (Grille) from 1997 comes from a corporate collection (estimate: €120,000–180,000). With the grille in the foreground Kneffel creates a layer behind it which to the viewer appears to be both out of reach and at the same time surreal. The result is a play of illusion and confusion which Kneffel masters brilliantly.

The work Camp Forestia by Scottish artist Peter Doig, whose paintings are rarely offered on the German auction market, comes from the corporate collection of Bremer Landesbank (estimate: €400,000–600,000). The picture combines the elements that are characteristic of Doig’s oeuvre. With the house and its reflection in the water he uses recurring symbols, making everything blurry and applying scratched paint to create a mysterious atmosphere that is typical of his work.

The Contemporary Art segment contains the exciting works from a private collection in the Rhineland region entitled “Beyond the Mainstream – A Rhenish Collection”. Containing early works by Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff, among others, it reflects the spirit of the 1980s and ’90s, when the collection was assembled in collaboration with influential gallery owners in the Rhineland. The highly aesthetic work Rain by Wolfgang Tillmans plays with the ambiguity of everyday life. Other prints of the motif were part of major international Tillmans exhibitions, such as at the MoMA, New York, in 2022 and at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2025, or can be found in eminent museum collections, such as the ones at Kunstpalast Düsseldorf and Folkwang Museum, Essen.