CARL ANTON REICHEL (Wels 1874 - 1944 Vienna) Prominent bundle of 319 works of art among others including 20 works of mixed media and watercolours on paper or cardboard, 56 drawings on paper and 243 prints, most of them dry point on paper also including a print with the view of the home of Carl Anton Reichel, as well as the death mask of the artist provenance: estate of the artist, corporate collection Vienna The extensive complete estate of Carl Anton Reichel is coming up for auction. This presents a unique opportunity to acquire the unfiltered legacy of a significant figure of the Austrian avant-garde from the early 20th century. The collection, which comes from a renowned corporate collection, includes 243 graphic works, 56 drawings, 20 watercolours and mixed media pieces, as well as Reichel's death mask. ESTIMATE € 25000 - 40000 STARTING PRICE € 25000 Carl Anton Reichel had a wide range of interests. The son of a Viennese notary, he studied psychiatry and psychology-though without obtaining a degree-in Prague and Vienna, and possibly also in Munich, where he met Alfred Kubin. Despite being a self-taught artist, Reichel had a highly regarded career as a visual artist and was highly esteemed among his peers. Hermann Bahr dedicated his 1919 play The Monster ("Der Unmensch") "to the great artist Carl Reichel in grateful devotion." Reichel also counted influential friends such as Arnold Schönberg and the Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht, on whose behalf he negotiated with the Nazis in the 1920s over the future form of government-negotiations that did not prevent eighteen of Reichel's early expressionist works from being confiscated and almost entirely destroyed during the 1937 "Degenerate Art" campaign. Reichel holds a unique position within the Austrian avant-garde. As a graphic artist, he initially specialised in woodcuts and later worked primarily as an etcher, but he cannot be easily assigned to any specific art movement. Although Ernst Fuchs considered him an artistic forefather, and Reichel is regarded as a precursor of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, terms like fantastic, symbolist, or surrealist can only approximate his work. He defied categorisation, once stating: "To try to include my sometimes difficult-to-access paintings or etchings within the circle of any kind of expressionism would be very mistaken." At the same time, alongside his works that programmatically transcend the visible world, there is a large body of sensual, realistic nudes and equally realistic portraits. The ambivalence of his work, its cryptic visual language, and the titles infused with mythological elements challenge the viewer. What is unmistakable, however, is the alluring surface of his art. Reichel wrote: "Do not be angry with those who are given a larger portion of the psychic realm to use, and who understand the hermeneutics of images and language. It is written: Whoever can grasp it, let him grasp it; but for those outside, everything happens in parables." PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.