7138 - Holtz, Karl

Holtz, Karl Ruins in Warsaw on Okopowa Street Gouache and white over pencil on light-weight cardboard. 1941. 21.8 x 27 cm. On the reverse, stamped with the estate stamp “Karl Holtz.” KHV 1941.2. Stylistically situated between New Objectivity and Magic Realism, Holtz depicts the Warsaw ruins in minute detail while simultaneously simplifying them into flat forms. The name on the wall, “H. F(E?)TERMAN,” refers to Poland, according to the Karl Holtz Archive, as this surname appears in the Yad Vashem database exclusively among Polish or Ukrainian victims, some of whom also listed Warsaw as their former place of residence—where Holtz was stationed during World War II. Okopowa Street is home to one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, where, in addition to individual graves, there are mass graves of murdered residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. On the reverse is another pencil sketch by the artist. Provenance: Private collection, Berlin Exhibition: Karl Holtz, Galerie Bodo Niemann, Berlin 1987, Cat. No. 15, p. 29 (with ill.) - Please ask for condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.