KOLLER VIEW 2/23

13 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART Jara Koller jara.koller@kollerauctions.com ONLINE CATALOGUES www.kollerauctions.com 4 5 Preview of the Impressionist & Modern Art auction on 23 June 2023 A group of early 20 th -century works from a Swiss pri- vate collection will be featured in the 23 June auction, including an important series of watercolours cre- ated by the expressionist Emil Nolde between 1920 and 1946. The artist used this technique throughout his life to depict the scenery and people of his north- ern German homeland. His landscape watercolours often show dramatic skies bathed in dark, strongly contoured surfaces and an expressive colouration that emphasises and intensifies the wildness of na- ture. The fluid transitions and translucent surfaces of Emil Nolde, watercolourist watercolour painting enabled the artist to create sub- tle shading and gradations of colour that add depth and complexity to his paintings. Nolde’s seascapes (ill. 4 and 6), which sometimes seem to dissolve into abstract forms and surfaces, reflect his longing for freedom and independence. They convey a sense of vastness, movement and vitality, and express his deep emotional connection with nature. These seascapes also represent transcendental experiences, render- ing them timeless for many viewers. With his sponta- neous manner of open-air painting, Emil Nolde cre- ated works that made an important contribution to the development of 20 th -century modern art. The auction also includes ‘Yellow Sun’, 1917, by the ‘Brücke’ artist Erich Heckel (ill. 1). As with Nolde, the painting depicts an experience of nature. Heckel also breaks away from conventional depictions, opens up to abstraction and gives the colour surfaces an importance of their own. The focus is on the im- mediate and subjective experience of nature: the artists were not only looking for new art, but at the same time for a new way of life. ©No lde Stiftung Seebüll 6 ©Nolde Stiftung Seebüll ©Nolde Stiftung Seebüll