World Record for "Cirkus" by Isaac Grünewald at Modern Art & Design

New World Record for Isaac Grünewald’s Masterpiece “Cirkus” – Sold at 17,25 Million SEK at Bukowskis

During Wednesday’s live auction Modern Art & Design, Bukowskis once again made Swedish art history when Isaac Grünewald’s 1918 painting “Cirkus” went under the hammer. The work was offered with an estimate of 8 million SEK and, after lively bidding, was sold for a final price of 17,25 million SEK – a new world record for the artist.

The work “Cirkus” is part of a suite of three paintings from 1917/18 that were displayed in a place of honor in the dining room of the Grünewalds’ villa in Saltsjöbaden. “Apachedansen” (private collection) and “Tjurfäktning” (Norrköping Art Museum) all share motifs taken from the circus arena, where a play of movement, color, form, and light is central. “Cirkus” belonged to Grünewald’s private collection and remained in the family until it was sold at auction in 1997.

“Cirkus” is among the handful of groundbreaking paintings that Isaac Grünewald created during the late 1910s, works that have firmly established themselves as some of the most significant of early modernism.