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143 - Austrian Post-War Viennese Actionism Rainer, Arnulf Kanagawa…
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Estimate €2,200 - €2,800
Sale commission
Description
Austrian Post-War Viennese Actionism Rainer, Arnulf Kanagawa. 2025. Drypoint in blue on vellum. 38.6 x 28.7 cm (66 x 53 cm). Signed and numbered. - On the outer right-hand edge, there is a restored tear in the vellum. Overall, very good condition. An exceptionally magnificent, colour-rich and textured print with margins, featuring the artist’s mark on the left. One of 25 copies. Here, Rainer realises the fundamental principle of his printmaking practice in blue: A single printing ink is transformed into a complete tonal range through the varying density of accumulated layers of lines – from delicate traces of ice blue at the edges, where individual lines fade transparently onto the ivory-coloured handmade paper, through a luminous cobalt blue in the central transitional zones, to a rich ultramarine blue, which finally condenses in the centre into an abyssal Prussian blue that borders on black. This method – the stroke as a carrier of colour, the line as a colouristic mass – is not merely technical sophistication, but a statement inherent in the work itself: Rainer transforms the gestural quality of drawing into painterly density without ever becoming painting, thereby achieving in printmaking the same transgression of boundaries that characterises his overpaintings in the realm of painting. The tall, rectangular, self-contained form reinforces the effect of the centre as a black vortex: The midnight blue of the core inevitably draws the eye inwards and creates that contemplative quality which Rainer himself described as the ideal of the ‘perfectly dark image, filled with overwhelming silence’. The line itself becomes colour, the colour becomes depth – and the depth becomes the substantive core of a work that oscillates between graphic excess and meditative absorption. Kanagawa. 2025. Drypoint in blue on laid paper. 38.6 x 28.7 cm (66 x 53 cm). Signed and numbered. – A restored tear in the laid paper along the right-hand outer margin. Overall, very good condition. An exceptionally magnificent, richly coloured and textured print with margins, including the left-hand margin. One of 25 copies. Here, Rainer translates the guiding principle of his printmaking practice into blue: a single ink is transformed into a full tonal range through the varying density of accumulated layers of lines—from delicate traces of ice blue at the edges, where individual lines fade transparently into the ivory-coloured handmade paper, through a luminous cobalt blue in the central transition zones to a rich ultramarine blue, which finally condenses in the centre into an abyssal Prussian blue that borders on black. This process—the stroke as a carrier of colour, the line as a colouristic mass—is not merely technical sophistication, but a statement inherent to the work: Rainer transforms the gestural quality of drawing into painterly density without ever becoming painting, thereby achieving in printmaking the same transgression of boundaries that characterises his overpaintings in the realm of painting. The tall, rectangular, self-contained form reinforces the effect of the centre as a black vortex: the midnight blue of the core inevitably draws the eye inwards and creates that contemplative quality which Rainer himself described as the ideal of the ‘perfectly dark image, filled with overwhelming silence’. The line itself becomes colour, the colour becomes depth – and the depth becomes the substantive core of a work that oscillates between graphic excess and meditative absorption. *This lot is subject to standard tax. A 24.95% buyer’s premium is payable on the hammer price, and 7% (Books and Art) or 19% VAT (Manuscripts, Screenprints, Offset Prints, Photographs) is payable on the final invoice amount within the European Union. This work is subject to the standard margin scheme. A 24.95% buyer’s premium is charged on the hammer price, and 7% (books and art) or 19% VAT (manuscripts, screen prints, offset prints and photographs) is charged on the final invoice amount within the European Union.
See original version (German)
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About the sale Modern and Contemporary Art
Auction location
Auction time 07/11/2026 at 11:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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