On Tuesday, October 22, 2019, as part of his sale dedicated to the Daniel Varenne's collection, the PIASA auction house will honour Dieter Appelt by offering for sale a selection of six photographs made in the late 1970s.
After a first training in Leipzig, Dieter Appelt studied at the Berlin School of Fine Arts where he began photography with Heinz Hajek-Halke. Quickly, his work is characterized by the multiplicity of mediums.
At the end of the 1970s, strongly influenced by the work of Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) or the Viennese actionists, he practiced photography, film, sculpture and drawing at the same time. His images that he gives birth are deeply tormented.
Dieter Appelt (né en 1935)
Aus Errinerungsspur (tête), 1978
Tirage argentique
38 x 28,5 cm
Provenance: Galerie Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 2 000 / 3 000 euros
They express the anguish and distress of the human. At the limit of self-portraiture, his pictures are very close to body art, as evidenced by "Aus Errinerungsspur (head)", a photograph taken in 1978. Dieter Appelt often stages his own body in performances. He thus becomes both the subject and the object of his works.
Dieter Appelt (né en 1935)
Die quelle, 1978
Tirage argentique
Signé, daté, numéroté "EA" et dédicacé au dos
38,5 x 29 cm
Provenance : Galerie Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 2 000 / 3 000 euros
For him, photography is an allegory of the passage between life and death and sees not only a way to fix one's own mortality but also to capture the passage of time. Time and light are indissociable in most of his early work as "Die quel" presented with an estimate of between 2,000 and 3,000 euros.
Beyond the obvious themes of self-discovery by the specular image, of Narcisse, the double, the self-portrait with the mirror of Dieter Appelt that the house PIASA offers for sale stages the mechanism of the perception and nature optical photography.
Dieter Appelt (né en 1935)
Autoportrait-The mark of the Mirror Breathing Makes, 1978
Tirage argentique
Signé, numéroté "19/20", dédicacé et porte le cachet de l'artiste au dos
29 x 39 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Springer, Berlin
- Galerie Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 2 000 / 3 000 euros
The interposition of his body between the photographic lens taking the place of the seer and the image produced (his in the mirror) reminds us that the essence is not comparable to the representation. A real beat occurs between reality and imitation, visual value and tactile value. The vapor covering the mirror seems to correspond to a symbolism of erasure.
