Otto Dix
1891 - 1969

Spelunke. 1925.
Gouache over pencil.
Signed, dated and inscribed "351". Titled on the reverse. 50 x 67 cm (19.6 x 26.3 in), the full sheet.[KA/MH].


• Dix, chronicler of the Weimar Republic, sketches a bar scene with protagonists marked by life with a sharp eye.
• “Spelunke” addresses the dark side of the big city: social decline, hedonism, and excessive consumption.
• The watercolor technique lends the work both lightness in the fleetingness of the moment and a disturbing intimacy.
• Formerly owned by Otto Conzelmann, a close confidant of Otto Dix.
• Part of an acclaimed private collection in Berlin for over 40 years.

We are grateful to Mr. Rainer Pfefferkorn, Otto Dix Foundation, for kindly providing additional information.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Neue Kunst Fides, Dresden (1929, probably on commission from the artist's estate).
Dr. Otto Conzelmann, Stuttgart (1950).
New York art market.
Kende Galleries, New York (acquired in 1971, Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg).
Private collection, Berlin (since 1979: Sotheby's).

EXHIBITION: Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Autumn Exhibition Oct./Nov. 1925, no. 71.
Otto Dix, Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Munich, June/July 1926, no. 27.
Sonder-Ausstellung OTTO DIX, Kunstsalon Wolfsberg, Zurich, Feb./March 1929, no. 62.
Otto Dix, Kunstverein Freiburg i. Br., collective exhibition, 1950/51, no. 73.
OTTO DIX, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, September 11–October 16, 1960, p. 31, no. 131 (illustrated).
Otto Dix. Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, das graphische Werk 1913-1963, Kongresshalle Berlin, 1963, cat. no. 110.
Otto Dix, Galerie Baukunst, Cologne, 1966, cat. no. 60.

LITERATURE: Suse Pfäffle, Otto Dix. Catalog raisonné of watercolors and gouaches, Stuttgart 1991, CR no. A 1925/1 ( illustrated in black and white on p. 203).
--
Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg, 180th auction, Modern Art, June 3-5, 1971, lot 462 (illustrated on p. 95).
Sotheby's, New York, 4247th auction, May 16, 1979, lot 109.