As an auction house, we receive items from a wide variety of sectors every day at works . it Whether watches, Antiques or paintings, the first and most important question to answer it is, is the for a Auction in question object an original?
In order to answer this, various factors play a role, for one thing the provenance, from whom and does the object come, in whose possession has it been, has it been sold before, if yes, by whom? All these questions help to confirm the authenticity of a work and to decipher its history.
Another important factor is the expertise of art experts and reviewers, who through their extensive knowledge and experience can classify the object and authenticity.
In today's article we take you to the Cologne studio for Papierrestaurierungen Ferlmann, where we had a drawing by the Polish artist Beksiński checked. A look behind the scenes of our exciting and varied work with art!
The motif - A typical Beksiński?
The 1929 in Sanok born artist acts in his sceneries on canvas and paper in the field of the underworld. He tries to describe it, to oppose it and thus to work out the abysses of humanity and of life. In bare, stony landscape passes the train of griffin-like mythical creatures, resembling the Thestrale. From the depth of the left part of the picture they pass the viewer and stride to the right side of the picture, slightly up the mountain. To be able to create the depth of the sheet, he staggers not only the animals, which run behind each other, but also the grave or memorial stones, which they carry on the back.
how a spectator we stand before this devout scenery and ask ourselves what the stones mean have. for whom were they struck? What is written on on them? Where are these beings going? A silence of sorrow can be sensed in the atmosphere of the sheet and leaves the viewer with questions, how so often in Beksiński's untitled works.
Print or original?
It was precisely this extraordinarily dramatic motif that immediately caught the attention of Mr. Kochendörfer and his colleagues on, so that we naturally first talked about the artist and our results achieved so far before the sheet was literally put under the magnifying glass.
it are some prints of this well-known gloomy motif on the art market. So we wanted to confirm that we can clearly present a drawing from the hand of the artist. Here we trust on the esteemed expertise and the professional approach of owner and graduate restorer Philipp Kochendörfer, who took a closer look at the sheet with us.
During the examination of the sheet it was mainly about the artistic technique, which revealed to us, as it were, what high quality we have have: First of all, it here is an aqueous preparatory drawing in gouache or watercolor - on this way the artist has created the slightly yellowish background. on this he could then draw in lead, graphite, charcoal and chalk. The edges have original traces on, which must have come from gluing the sheet, because it otherwise would have curled more in accordance with the aqueous painting.
In addition, the artist created a depth through the slightly yellowish ocher in the upper area, which he knew how to work out with delicate recesses and white pencil in hairlines. Particularly noteworthy here is that it the skillful overlapping of techniques. These build on each other on and merge in places - but remain in the self-set linework. "A sophisticated technique that was used there!", so Mr. Kochendörfer enthusiastically about the mixed technique, whose work steps he analyzed together with us.
In addition, that the sheet dates from 1973 and in the framing has come very well over the decades. it has a wonderful condition on.
it was according to the subject and in view of the artistic oeuvre certainly not an easy or joyful work, which has taken on the artist , but he dedicates himself to this on highest level. A painstaking work that requires the fullest patience and dedication to their own art. it was created a mixed technique, which not only on this sheet was used, but in a whole series - from which just this sheet comes.
Original drawing of the artist
So is clear after detailed examination of the work, it is an original drawing of Beksiński, which created the artist with an incredible technical skill. Since we have already been entrusted with several works of the artist, we are pleased to offer you works Beksiński in our upcoming Auction on 27 Mai . Among them, the object discussed here , as well as 3 other works of the artist.
All information and the auction catalog can be found here on our website!
