Art – Munich – Works by the artist group Brücke go under the hammer – Bavaria
Munich (dpa) – Top-class works by the Brücke artist group come under the hammer: the Gerlinger collection is auctioned off in several steps. The Munich auction house announced on Tuesday that the collection, which consists of around 1,000 objects, is one of the largest and best-known of German Expressionism. The focus is on works by Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl, who founded the bridge in Dresden in 1905.
The Würzburg entrepreneur Hermann Gerlinger and his wife Hertha had collected paintings, hand drawings, watercolors, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, sculptures and numerous documents since the 1950s. The collection was on display in museums for decades. “Now the time has come to make the works directly available to the next generation of collectors,” explained Hermann Gerlinger. “If the young generation can live with the works themselves, THEY WILL find their very own approach to the Brücke artists and the Brücke art.”
Initially, four special catalogs and then one step-by-step special catalog are planned over a period of about four years. According to the auction house, the proceeds from the auctions will benefit three non-profit organizations.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 220104-99-584328 / 2