From Rik Wouters to Jan Vercruysse, Jef Geys or Dirk Braeckman. Besides the archive of André de Ridder and the exceptional collection around Tracey Emin, Bernaerts will offer a rich and diverse range of ‘Works on Paper, Valuable Books & Editions’ on Thursday 25 April.

Three superb watercolours by our fauvist Rik Wouters will undoubtedly set the tone, followed by a beautiful drawing by Jules De Bruycker. From the latter, the extremely rare print ‘Kultur‘ will also surface. From a Lier collection, a rich and diverse range of drawings by Felix Timmermans is featured first, including some very strong ‘Saint Francis‘ drawings and the original drawing for the first etched self-portrait ‘Mr Koekelkoren’. All the more remarkable is the beautifully rendered drawing by Jan Toorop with a heartfelt dedication.

Eugeen Van Mieghem is again well represented in this auction with five works (one etching and four drawings). As such, we refer to a sublime drawing of ‘Two ladies on the terrace of Café Hulstkamp, Antwerp’. The café still exists and was, at the time, the regular venue for Van Mieghem and other famous Antwerp artists.

After a long time, rare graphic work by Fernand Khnopff has come up for auction, namely two heightened platinum prints, ‘Les lèvres rouges‘ and ‘Diffidence‘. The last print is very exceptionally numbered by Khnopff, so we know that (of this printing anyway) nine copies were made. This one is number 3. And then there is Pablo Picasso, who will no doubt attract attention with a stunning early copy of ‘La Source‘, from 1921, number 3 from an edition of 100.

The post-war offering certainly counts just as many surprises and exceptional pieces. To begin with, there is the cahier ‘Art Abstrait‘ with contributions by Pol Bury, Georges Collignon, Jo Delahaut and others. Enthusiasts and foragers know that a full cahier rarely comes to market anymore. A little further on, there are three exceptional pieces from the same collection, namely a bic drawing by Jan Fabre, an impressive drawing by Georg Baselitz and, above all, an intriguing composition by Ji Yun-Fei, acquired from the legendary Zeno-X gallery. Joining this is Wim Delvoye’s monumental 18-piece work, ‘Love letter II’, from 1999, acquired from that other top Antwerp gallery, namely Micheline Szwajcer.

Benefit auction
20 years

Veilinghuis Bernaerts is voorts verheugd zich te mogen inzetten voor het stadsdichterschap in de vorm van een benefietveiling ter gelegenheid van het twintigjarig bestaan.

Al 20 jaar bezingen de stadsdichters alle facetten van Antwerpen en laten ze hun stadsgedichten leven in de stad. Sinds 2003 benoemde Antwerpen om de twee jaar een nieuwe stadsdichter, in 2022 nam het verhaal een nieuwe wending met een collectief van vijf stadsdichters. Sinds 2023 staan de stadsdichters op eigen benen.

Om het initiatief te steunen, zullen op donderdag 25 april zeventien loten, samengesteld uit werk van de stadsdichters, onder de hamer komen.

(Loten stadsdichters: nummers 1110 t.e.m. 1126)