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104 - Otto WOLS (Berlin 1913 - Paris 1951) Grey lights Watercolour…
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Estimate €5,000 - €8,000
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Description
Otto WOLS (Berlin 1913 - Paris 1951) Grey lights Watercolour 13.4 x 12 cm Signed lower right Wols On the back of the mounting card is handwritten Wols (1913-1951) Lumière grise watercolour made at the Hôtel du Pas de Calais, 59 rue des saint pères in 1947; Photo 297. N° 65 13,4x 12 Grety Wols and me stamp of the Otto Wols estate 2006 Provenance: Deburaux Aponem & SVV Sophie Renard sale, 15 June 2011, no. 58 Acquired by the current owner at this sale A certificate from Dr Ewald Rathke will be given to the buyer. "Wols, an "artist in a hurry", revolutionised painting in barely 18 years of artistic creation, to such an extent that he established himself as the leader of lyrical abstraction in Paris and Europe". in Otto sale, 15 June 2011, Paris Drouot-Richelieu, Supplement, preface, p. 8. Represented by René Drouin at the time, Wols produced around forty paintings in early summer 1947, which were exhibited at the gallery. The exhibitions in which the artist took part at Drouin illustrate this period, known as lyrical abstraction, which was characterised by an "effervescent relationship between the artists and the authors of these texts" (Otto Wols (Paris-Drouot Richelieu), Supplément (Wednesday 15 June 2011), p. 10). The works that Wols painted from the 40s onwards were thus compared with the works of a circle of intellectuals and artists, such as Jean Paul Sartre, Camus, Samuel Beckett and Maurice Merleau Ponty... Critics such as Michel Tapié and René Guilly were to play a particularly important role in the recognition of Wols' work within this "literary and artistic France" (Otto Wols (Paris-Drouot Richelieu), Supplément (Wednesday 15 June 2011), p. 11). Thus, in 1950, on the occasion of the Hugo Gallery's New York exhibition entitled "Wols first American exhibition", Guilly explains: "Freedom was the essential discovery of contemporary painting. No gratuitous act, no caprice, no originality at any price, but the painter's right to go to the very limits of himself, without restrictions. This freedom may seem frightening: for each of us, the self is the most formidable and inaccessible arena". in Otto sale, 15 June 2011, Paris Drouot-Richelieu, Supplement, preface, p. 11.
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About the sale Modern Art
Auction location
Auction time 06/30/2026 at 2:00 PM
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