655 - BRÜNING, PETER

BRÜNING, PETER 1929 Düsseldorf–1970 Ratingen Title: No. 135. Date: 1962. Technique: Oil and colored chalk on canvas. Dimensions: 97 x 129.5 cm. Notation: Signed and dated lower right: Brüning 62. Inscribed on the reverse 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—Studies on Development and Work, 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 a 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 was initially a member of the artist group “53” beginning 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 infuse 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 lines taper 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 maintains 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: This lot is not suitable for parcel shipping. Transport is available only through a shipping company after consultation following the auction. Additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to a total invoice amount of 25,000 euros: max. 41.65 euros For a total invoice amount exceeding 25,000 Euros: 1.8 per thousand Shipping to the USA by individual arrangement after the auction. #Peter Brüning #Informel #Germany #Post-War Art #Painting #Gestural Abstraction #1960s #Post-War. In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obligated 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 toward this fee.