The auction house im Kinsky is pleased to support the auction of artworks from the private collection of Agnes and Karlheinz Essl to benefit the Hilde Wagener artists' home.
Mr. and Mrs. Essl provide a selection of 88 outstanding graphic works by Austrian and international artists. Among them are works by Hermann Nitsch, Martha Jungwirth, Markus Prachensky and Herbert Brandl, as well as by Georg Baselitz, Günther Förg, Neo Rauch and Jonathan Meese. You will also find works by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. The particularly low starting price should enable as many bidders as possible to participate – some prices already starting at 100 euros.
Pablo Picasso
Le dormeur, 1942
"With the charity auction for the association “Künstler helfen Künstlern” (artists help artists) my wife and I support the Hilde Wagener artists' home in Baden near Vienna. This home is a wonderful place for artists, who can retire there gracefully in a beautiful environment and with all the help and care they need. Among the 88 offered valuable artworks is a series of highly limited, exclusive prints created especially for the Essl Collection by important Austrian and international artists. As collectors, it is very important to us to take this auction as an opportunity to help artists who have played an indispensable role in our society throughout their lives and have often renounced their own comfort as they grew older. They should be enabled to age happily.”
Marc Chagall
La baie des anges
The idea for the charitable association "Künstler helfen Künstlern" (artists help artists) was born in 1949, when German actors from the Sudetenland came to Vienna and had a difficult time getting along. Hilde Wagener, at that time actress at the Burgtheater Wien, consequently founded the association to help all people in need that are working in the artistic field. In 1962 she bought a house in Baden near Vienna with the received donations. This is where the artists' home is located today – currently 24 artists are residing there.
In order to maintain the house and to cover the personnel costs, the association "Künstler helfen Künstlern" (artists help artists) is always looking for supporters. Agnes and Karlheinz Essl have been closely associated with artists in all phases of their lives for many decades. For this reason, it is a matter of great concern to them to contribute to the artists' home. Contemporary art-enthusiasts are invited to bid at the auction and thus support the artists living there at the same time.
(Alexandra Markl)