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Kurt Seligmann"Little Initiation" Kurt Seligmann, Surrealist Knights, Mythical Figures1955
1955
$45,000
£34,406.36
€39,383.85
CA$63,455.42
A$69,078.35
CHF 36,875.74
MX$833,934.15
NOK 463,666.61
SEK 430,947.62
DKK 294,140.28
About the Item
Kurt Seligmann
Little Initiation, 1955
Signed lower right and titled on the reverse
Oil on wood panel
17 1/4 x 13 inches
Provenance
Private Collection, New York
Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1900, Kurt Seligmann's first job as a young man was in a local printer's shop where he learned how to apply color to pictures on glass projected for educational use, a skill he would later employ in his own reverse glass paintings. Taking lessons from the traditionalist Ernst Buchner and the modernist Eugene Rudolf Ammann set a pattern of concurrent and seemingly opposite influences that would continue in his own work throughout his life. In 1918 he started to regularly participate in exhibitions at the Basel Kunsthalle, and in 1919 he began studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva, where he met Alberto Giacometti. A portrait of the sculptor by Seligmann painted at that time now hangs in the Kunstmuseum in Bern.
Kurt's father, Gustav Seligmann, established a successful furniture business in Switzerland, and his mother, Helene Guggenheim, was a member of one of the oldest families in Lengnau; and art collector Peggy Guggenheim was also related to them. Kurt's time at the Beaux-Arts abruptly ended when his father became ill and he returned home to run the family business, a role which lasted for eight years. An exhibition at the Kuntsmuseum Basel of the 16th century artist/mercenary Urs Graf was the impetus for him to revisit his artistic pursuits, and in 1926, he resigned from the business. Though the business thrived under his son's leadership and he had been initially disappointed that his son wanted to attend art school, Gustav ultimately supported him in his decision.
After studying and traveling in Italy for a year, in 1929 Seligmann moved to Paris, where he spent a few months studying at André Lhote while working from models at Colarossi's Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His bohemian lifestyle was enriched by frequent visits to the Louvre, his close attention to Freud's lectures on psychoanalysis, and the company of other fellow expatriate artists, including Serge Brignoni and Gérard Vuillamy. According to his diary, during this period Seligmann purposely searched for inspiration beyond everyday reality, in order to invent new subject matter from insight and imagination.
In the work of the 1950s, Seligmann increasingly made use of cosmic elements, organic forms, and animals, perhaps inspired by the gardens of the Sugar Loaf farm that he and his wife Arlette Paraf lived on together. During this period his compositions retained classic elements of figure, with his dynamic anthropomorphic forms applied to references to myth and nature.
- Creator:Kurt Seligmann (1900-1962, American)
- Creation Year:1955
- Dimensions:Height: 22.375 in (56.84 cm)Width: 18.375 in (46.68 cm)
- More Editions Sizes:Unique workPrice: $45,000
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1841217021222
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