3171
Winterauktionen 24.–25.11.2023
Naegeli, Harald Oskar called the Sprayer of Zurich
Born 1939 Zurich, lives and works in Zurich.
Untitled. Figure.
Spray paint on paper. Signed lower left and dated «12/1/(19)96».
H 179, W 49 cm (frame). Framed.
Piece of art or vandalism? - What Harald Naegeli sprayed on the walls of Zurich since 1977 «[...] was a protest against the inhospitability of cities, of architecture», as the sprayer pointed out in a Spiegel article in 2013 (in: Sarah Levy, Graffiti-Pionier Harald Naegeli, die Dosenrevolution, in: Der Spiegel, 27.08.2013). Society saw him controversially as somewhere between «modern-day Till Eulenspiegel», who created new graffitis every night, and a vandal. For the judiciary, he was clearly the latter.
For years on the run from the authorities, he found exile in Germany, more precisely in Düsseldorf, sheltered by the local art scene. In the meantime, he has returned to his hometown, more or less in reconciliation. Anyway, Naegeli has achieved one thing, and that is to pave the way for the next generation of street artists.
Provenance: private collection Dreiländereck.

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