Franz Wilhelm Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Franz Wilhelm Art Value Price Guide

Jun. 23, 2023
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert Welt zum Staunen. Ein Bilde…
Est: €1,200 -
Classical Modernism Franz Wilhelm Seiwert Welt zum Staunen. Ein Bilderbuch in 6 vom Stock gedruckten Schnitten von F.W. Seiwert mit Versen von Freunden. Mit Titelholzschnitt und 6 ganzs. Illustrationen sowie gegenüberliegenden Versen in Holzschnitt. (Simonskall), Kalltalpresse, 1919. - Papierbedingt gebräunt und etwas fleckig, mit Fragmenten eines Schildchens auf dem Vorderdeckel, das Titelblatt gestempelt (ehemaliges Bibliotheksexemplar), in den Rändern leicht knickspurig, die Klammerung etw. rostig. Insgesamt in gutem Zustand. Ausgezeichnete, kontraststarke Drucke, die Maserung fein mitdruckend. Bohnen 240. Rodenberg I, 101. Lang 331. Stuck-Villa II, 311. - Eines von 100 Exemplaren (die Auflage betrug laut Bohnen 600 Ex., laut Rodenberg und nach Aufzeichnungen Seiwerts nur 100 Ex.). - Das Einzige der 10 Druckwerke der Kalltal-Gemeinschaft, welches auf der eigenen Presse gedruckt wurde und "Beispiel eines expressionistisches Bilderbuches für Kinder" (Lothar Lang). - Unter Leitung des Graphikers Franz Wilhelm Seiwert wurde die Kalltal-Gemeinschaft 1919 gegründet, allerdings aufgrund wirtschaftlicher Schwierigkeiten bereits 1921 wieder aufgelöst. With woodcut title and 6 full-page illustrations and verses in woodcut. (Simonskall), Kalltalpresse, 1919. - Paper browned and somewhat stained, with fragments of a label on the front cover, the title page stamped (former library copy), slightly creased in the margins, the staple somewhat rusty. Overall in good condition. Excellent, high-contrast impressions, the grain finely printed. - One of 100 copies (according to Bohnen the edition was 600 copies, according to Rodenberg and Seiwert's records only 100 copies). - The only one of the 10 printed works of the Kalltal-Gemeinschaft which was printed on its own press.
Jeschke Jádi Auctions Berlin GmbH
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Mutter und Kind I, 1921
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Monogrammed 'FWS' in pencil on the underside and signed 'FW SEIWERT' at the edge. In dating the present sculpture, Bohnen follows the corresponding mention of it by the artist to the French writer Tristan Rémy, whom Seiwert had met personally in 1922. Seiwert would become friends with Rémy and they would work together more closely politically and in their writing.This figural composition is enchanting not just because of its soft, organic contours but particularly because of its archaic air. The abstract style grinds down the forms within its contours, the material, the roughened surface and the earth tones of the clay seem to highlight something primally human, like objects from prehistoric times, although the mask-like emptiness of the faces represents a defamiliarising technique in the early 20th century - a formal risk deliberately taken by the artist in this period. Among the artist's many lost and destroyed sculptural works, this large mother-and-child group from an old Wuppertal collection stands out in every regard as an exceptional and valuable example of his work.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Liegende Kuh, 1919/20
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Unsigned. Foundry mark "W. Füss[el] Berlin" on lower left edge. Cast after the original clay sculpture, presumably from the 1950s.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Masse, 1922
Est: €4,000 - €5,000
Signed and dated.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Vereinfachte Frauenfigur, 1919/20
Est: €6,000 - €8,000
Unsigned. Cast after the original clay sculpture, probably from the 1950s.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Fabrikbetrieb, 1923
Est: €3,000 -
Signed and dated.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Die Fabrik, 1923
Est: €4,000 - €5,000
Signed and dated.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 09, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Fahnenträger, Circa 1922
Est: €15,000 - €18,000
Unsigned. Presumably unique, cast in the 1960s. The sculpture “Fahnenträger” programmatically illustrates the linking of art and radical politics sought by the “Cologne Progressives”. In addition to Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, the core of this loose-knit group of artists included Heinrich Hoerle and Gerd Arntz; their political programme was class struggle with the ideal of a Communism organised through soviet councils. Not just the inner contents, but also the outer form of their artistic expression was meant to serve this goal. As Seiwert put it, the content needed to “reconfigure the form to itself, content and form have to be struggle, solidarity, class consciousness of the proletariat” (cited in: Köln progressiv 1920 - 33, Seiwert - Hoerle - Arntz, exhib. cat. Museum Ludwig Cologne 2008, p. 23). In this sculpture, Seiwert creates a symbol of the cohesiveness with which the workers gather together beneath the flag. In 1927 he realised the motif of a single flag bearer in an oil painting of the same name (see Bohnen 92, where it is still labelled as lost). The plaster original also exists; it was initially owned by the de Wit family, who were close friends of Seiwert. After they emigrated to Russia, the sculpture went to the Kubicki family and - after receiving the approval of Juscha de Wit, presumably in the mid-1960s - they had this iron cast produced by the Buderus company. The plaster sculpture was sent back to Juscha de Wit and made its way from there to the collection of Gerd Arntz.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 08, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Drei Arbeiterköpfe, 1926
Est: €90,000 - €120,000
Monogrammed and dated 'FWS 26' (scratched into wet paint) upper margin to right of centre. - Verso inscribed "Jean Loosen" (Cologne stonemason and Seiwert's friend) in blue handwriting. We would like to thank Uli Bohnen, Eschweiler, for kind advice; with his certificate dated 30 October 2020 According to the date located next to the monogram, the “Drei Arbeiterköpfe” by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, which were previously placed somewhat earlier in his oeuvre, have moved closer to an important work of 1927, “Freitagabend”, a painting which was formerly housed in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, was confiscated in 1933 and destroyed during a bombing raid (see comparative illus.). It is not just the profile type of the man with a moustache that can be found there. In the 1920s Seiwert developed a certain repertoire of formulaic motifs and constructive figurations which he knew how to modify and combine almost in the manner of stencils. Coupled with an emphatic two-dimensionality of the picture, these included the use of simplified and abbreviated forms employed to produce strong contrasts: circular curved forms, emphatic vertical and horizontal lines and staggered diagonals. These elements of geometric abstraction, the rigorously simplified contours, the elements drawn on to the heads and figures and their densely packed alternation in frontal and profile views are stylistic devices which originally derived from Seiwert's graphic work and his artistic and political propaganda. While efforts had already been made since 1919 to “create building blocks for a new visual language” - for example, Angelika Hoerle's linocuts for an “a b c Bilderbuch” (cf. “Angelikas Erbe”, in: Experiment Kalltalgemeinschaft, op. cit., p. 44) - the question of the reach and acceptance of the revolutionary art of the “Kölner Progressive” within society remained a constant theme that also left its mark in the form of articles in the journal “a-z” (1929-1933). In the medium of oil painting, Seiwert had been experimenting not just with the attained elements of a new pictorial idiom but also with painting techniques and supports since the middle of the decade as well as in the “Drei Arbeiterköpfe” of 1926. Seiwert's emphasis on materialities, on colours and tactile surfaces distinguishes him and situates his work in the midst of the international artistic avant-garde context of those years. See further works by F.W. Seiwert in our Auction 1163 on 9 December 2020, lots 493-499.
Kunsthaus Lempertz KG
Dec. 03, 2020
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert - ”Seemann”
Est: €30,000 - €40,000
”Seemann” Monogrammed and dated middle right: FWS 24. On the reverse at the top twice the artist's address (in pencil and stamped): Franz W. Seiwert / Cologne/Rh. / Eigelstein 147 III Seiwert, Franz Wilhelm Bohnen 52
Grisebach