(1937 Basel 1994)

Hölle. 1988.

Oil and charcoal on canvas.

Monogrammed and dated lower right: N.H. 88.

197 x 132 cm.

Provenance:
- Galerie Carzaniga & Uecker, Basel (verso with the label).
- Purchased from the above by the present owner, since then Swiss corporate art collection.

Literature: Hasenböhler-Dill, Doris/Hasenböhler, Serge/Hasenböhler, Niklaus: Niklaus Hasenböhler: 1937-1994: Das Gesamtwerk. Basel 1997, no. 337.

Swiss-born Niklaus Hasenböhler examines a multiplicity of themes, which as a group form an image of the world which contrasts with that of a civilized and cultivated society. Prostitution and slaughter are recurring motifs, the common denominator being an iconography of our animal physicality. With the addition of timeless vanitas symbols and masked figures, Niklaus Hasenböhler’s painting also harbours an examination of transience and the world as theatre.

Both works offered here at auction exemplify these themes. In “Hölle” from 1988, a half-animal, half-human creature hangs from the ceiling of a sharply receding room. The composition, with its predominantly grey tones, is interspersed with occasional accents of red and pink, the partly dripping lines of which soften the vastness of the background.

The second untitled work (Lot 3482) was made by Niklaus Hasenböhler in 1980 in Paris, where he had rented a studio since 1977, using it several weeks of the year. The figure striding towards the viewer might thus be a self-portrait. The unreal face eludes any precise interpretation and rather leaves an impression of an undefined individual within the turbulence of the big city.

The works, which are different in technique and motif, have in common a contradictory artistic expression, which makes them appear simultaneously emotional and elegant. This very discrepancy draws us towards an in-depth examination of his pictorial worlds, which elude any kind of clear-cut designation.