655 - BRÜNING, PETER

BRÜNING, PETER 1929 Düsseldorf–1970 Ratingen Title: No. 135. Date: 1962. Technique: Oil and coloured chalk on canvas. Measurement: 97 x 129.5 cm. Notation: Signed and dated lower right: Brüning 62. Inscribed verso upper right with the work number: 135 (circled). Frame: Framed. Provenance: - Galerie Schwarzer, Düsseldorf - Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (acquired from the previous owner in 2000) Exhibition: - Galerie Arnaud, Paris 1963 Literature: - Otten, Marie-Luise: Peter Brüning - Studien zu Entwicklung und Werk, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne 1988, Cat. rais. no. 475, Ill. - An expressive, large-format canvas from a pivotal phase in Brüning’s Informel work - Characteristic gestural-calligraphic composition with dynamic lines and typical color palette - Peter Brüning was featured at documenta on several occasions (1959, 1964, and 1968) Peter Brüning, born in Düsseldorf in 1929, is considered one of the most important representatives of German Informel. From 1950 to 1952, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under Willi Baumeister, who had a lasting influence on his understanding of a visual language detached from representational art. Brüning initially belonged to the artist group “53” starting in 1953 and, in the years that followed, established a distinctive and prominent position within postwar abstract art. With his participation in documenta II (1959), he went on to gain international recognition for his unique works. The painting No. 135, created in 1962, marks a significant turning point in Brüning’s creative phase in the early 1960s, during which he began to increasingly imbue his works with a symbolic, calligraphic form of expression. The spontaneous brushstroke becomes an independent pictorial sign that unfolds as movement within the pictorial space. Against a light, almost untouched background, fine black lines condense in interplay with powerful red swaths of color. In addition to the limited palette of black, red, and white, more restrained brushstrokes in orange and gray interweave among them. Scattered across the canvas, diagonal gestures meet vertical brushstrokes whose traces taper off downward. The tension-filled interplay of broad strokes of color and finely drawn lines conveys a dynamic of physical energy with graphic accents. Despite a sequence of movements that appears spontaneous and arbitrary, Brüning allows for a visual order, so that the visual language of his works lies between dynamism and lightness as well as spontaneity and conscious composition. This work illustrates Brüning’s unmistakable style at the height of his gestural-informal phase, before he increasingly turned his attention, beginning in the mid-1960s, to a landscape-based visual language that engaged with signs and symbols. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction. additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo USA by individual arrangement after the auction. #Peter Brüning #Informel #Germany #Post-War Art #Painting #Gestic Abstraction #1960s #Post War. In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.