Katzensprung. 1986.
Synthetic resin on nettle.
Signed, dated and titled on the reverse. 171 x 231 cm (67.3 x 90.9 in). [CH].


• Large-format work from the sought-after 1980s.
• With a humorous eye and in bold colors, Hödicke creates complex and bizarre pictorial worlds inhabited by animals and carnivalesque figures.
• Due to Hödicke's complex iconography, much remains enigmatic and vague, but this ambiguity describes one of the central qualities of his work.
• Kaspar (Punch) initially contradicts the seriousness of this painting, but at the same time adds a disturbing note with his large, artificial, almost diabolical grin.
• Hödicke's Berlin studio was located on Dessauer Strasse at the time, not far from the Wall, so the 'Katzensprung' (stone's throw) can perhaps also be seen as a sophisticated painterly commentary on it.
• Hödicke's works from the 1980s can be found in, among others, the collections of the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.
• 2020 zeigen die Pinakothek der Moderne, München, und das Palais Populaire, Berlin, jeweils großangelegte Werkschauen seines Schaffens.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Gmyrek, Düsseldorf (stretcher with typogr. label).
Galerie Lea Gredt, Luxemburg (stretcher with typogr. label).
Private collection Southern Germany (acquired in 2013).

LITERATURE: Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin, 213rd auction, Kunst nach 1945, May 31, 2013, lot 834 (fig.).

"Fools' mirrors that make you see clearly and puzzle you, that are mysterious and ambiguous."
Hermann Wiesler, Schöne Welt, brave Welt, Narren-Welt, in: ex. cat. K. H. Hödicke. Berliner Ring - Bilder und Skulpturen 1975-1992, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein / Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Berlin 1993, p. 98.