- Home
- News
- Pre-War German Art Excites Bidders
Pre-War German Art Excites Bidders
09 Apr, 2009
A previously
unseen archive of artwork from one of Germany's premier pre-war
anti-Nazi magazines, has been sold at Woolley and Wallis.
Found in a trunk
in the attic of a house in London, the collection of artwork from
Ulk magazine dated from between 1927 and 1933 and represented
both the decadence of bohemian society and also the darker
side of social unrest and the imminent war.
They were
all by Jewish artist Dodo Burgner, née Wolff, who was forced to
flee Germany in the 1930s following the closure of Ulk magazine by
the Nazis. She made for England with her lawyer husband, eventually
settling in North London.
Many of the
drawings and watercolours were fashion plates, evoking the last
languid days of 1930s opulence, before wartime Germany became a
very different place.
The
estimates on the twenty lots of artwork were somewhat speculative,
as there are no records of Dodo's work having been previously sold
at auction. A huge amount of interest was generated, however, and
the collection totalled some £14,000 on the day.
One of the
drawings for a front cover of Ulk magazine is understood to feature
the celebrated singer and entertainer Josephine Baker, who Dodo is
believed to have met at around this time. This piece proved one of
the most popular, selling for a hammer price of £2,800.