Lot #412: RUDOLF BAUER - Non-objective Prison Drawing #09 - Colored pencil drawing on paper

 

Artist: Rudolf Bauer (German, 1881 - 1953).
Title: "Non-objective Prison Drawing #09".
Medium: Colored pencil drawing on paper.
Date: Composed 1938.
Dimensions: Overall size: 6 1/8 x 9 13/16 in. (156 x 249 mm).
Pricing:
  Starting Price: $1,600
  Reserve Price: N.A.
  Auction Sale Price Estimate: $2,000/2,500
Lot Note(s): Signed in pencil with the customary initial, lower right recto; annotated "1938" in pencil on verso, upper right. Cream wove paper. Good condition with the normal issues common to Bauer's prison drawings. Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Comment(s): Another example of a Bauer prison drawing sold for $6,875 at Doyle New York, November 5, 2013, lot #86. An important example of Bauer’s rare “prison drawings.” As Wikipedia states: “In 1938, upon his return from an exhibition of his work in Paris, Bauer was arrested by the Nazis for his "degenerate" art and for speculating on the black market — meaning selling his work to [Solomon] Guggenheim. The previous year Bauer’s work had been included in the infamous Degenerate Art show in Munich, organized by the Nazis to show all the deviant, abstract art. In spite of this Bauer had refused to move from his home country. Upon his arrest Bauer was held in a Gestapo prison for several months, as [Hilla] Rebay and Guggenheim worked to free him. After several false starts, he was finally released unconditionally in August 1938. During his time in prison, he created dozens of non-objective drawings on scavenged scraps of paper. He spent the next months getting his paperwork in order and made the difficult decision to leave his homeland, emigrating to the United States in July 1939, just months before the beginning of World War II.” Image copyright © The Estate of Rudolf Bauer. [30398-1-1600-NA]