Provenance
Private Collection
Catalogue Essay
“My style is where you see the individual and where a personality is communicated through actions, decisions, single objects and facts, where the whole draws together to form a history.”
Martin Kippenberger

In the last decade of Martin Kippenberger’s life he produced perhaps his most famous series of works on paper. Entitled the “hotel drawings,” these works were executed upon hotel stationary that the artist had accumulated throughout his travels. The series documented the artist’s nomadic lifestyle; the unique drawings reveal Kippenberger’s quicksilver ability to delineate his unrestrained, powerful motifs.

The present lot, executed upon stationary from “Mike’s Marble Resort,” is entitled Sechs and is dated 1996. The work shows a number of fried eggs, flattened upon a colorfully tiled grid of salmon pinks and egg yolk yellow rectangles. In large black scrawl, the German word “SECHS” floats in the center of the composition. “SECHS,” at first glance means “six “in German, while when spoken in English it is heard as “sex.” As a visual strategy, Kippenberger often embraces German words that hold double meanings in order to infuse his works with sardonic humor and to create a dynamic interrelationship between text and image. The egg throughout art and religious history has symbolized rebirth, creation and fertility. Here those hallowed associations are demoted or at least transformed into a more prosaic set of meanings. The fried egg may connote both the promise and aftermath of the act of “sechs” itself. By linking text and image in both a harmonious and disparate manner, Kippenberger has been described as holding no subject as sacred. (A. Goldstein, 'The Problem Perspective', in: Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective, exh. cat., The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 2008, p. 39) Simultaneously, Kippenberger has successfully “appropriated numerous motifs and figures as his signs….They all came to be recognized as his self-willed companions, as figures in the ensemble of his thought.” (R. Ohrt, Kippenberger Paintings, exh. cat, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Cologne, 2004, p. 40)

24

Martin Kippenberger

Sechs

1996
colored pencil, ink on paper
11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (29.5 x 21 cm)
Initialed and dated "M.K. 96" lower right.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000

Sold for $40,000

Contact Specialist
Amanda Stoffel
Head of Evening Sale, Contemporary Art
New York
+ 1 212 940 1261

Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale, Design
New York
+ 1 212 940 1266

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

1
Franz West
Divan
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $137,000
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2
Fredrik Værslev
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $68,750
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3
Wyatt Kahn
Pair
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $137,000
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4
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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5
Ed Ruscha
Cherry
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $665,000
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6
Martin Kippenberger
Ego (Selbstporträt)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $87,500
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7
Peter Doig
Untitled
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $293,000
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8
Richard Prince
Untitled (cowboy)
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,145,000
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9
Marilyn Minter
Wave
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $269,000
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10
Guyton\Walker
Untitled (Ketel 1 Knife Painting)
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
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11
Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $100,000
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12
Mathias Bengtsson
“Slice” chair
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $60,000
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13
Alex Hubbard
Nonstop Home
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $62,500
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14
Dan Flavin
Untitled (to Lucie Rie, Master Potter) 1J
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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15
Dan Rees
Artex Painting
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $75,000
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16
Kenneth Noland
Chac volant
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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17
Carl Andre
32-Part Reciprocal Invention (RS 1971-20)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $100,000
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18
Sturtevant
Study for Stella Bethlehem's Hospital
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $317,000
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19
Sturtevant
Muybridge Plate #136, Woman Shifting Her Weight with Arms on Hip, Arms Behind Back
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $81,250
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20
Haim Steinbach
ten second memos #7
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $68,750
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21
Luc Tuymans
Exhibit #2
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $305,000
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22
Marc Newson
"Extruded Table 2"
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $179,000
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23
Franz West
o.T. (model)
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
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24
Martin Kippenberger
Sechs
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $40,000
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25
Niki de Saint Phalle
Pouf serpent bleu
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $87,500
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26
Tom Wesselmann
Blue Nude Drawing (12/17/99)
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $389,000
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27
Keith Haring
Pyramid
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $245,000
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28
Jack Pierson
The Crippled Beggar Knew a Priceless Secret
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $106,250
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29
Mark Flood
Announcement Frame
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
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30
Christian Rosa
Flora or Floral
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $87,500
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31
Thomas Heatherwick
"Extrusion" bench
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $112,500
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32
Ryan Sullivan
September 1, 2009 - February 11, 2010
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $50,000
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33
Thomas Houseago
Abstract Head I
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $81,250
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34
Oscar Tuazon
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $62,500
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35
Rashid Johnson
Bull
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $81,250
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36
Franz West
Trog
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $81,250
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Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 3 March 2015 6pm

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

24

Martin Kippenberger

Sechs

Contemporary Art and Design Evening Sale

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