Kurt Seligmann

Galerie Schreiner, Basel (possibly)
Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
Acquired from the above by Dr. Arthur Brandt on July 6, 1987

Basel, Kunsthalle, 1932, no. 1925 (possibly)
New York, D'Arcy Galleries, Retrospective Kurt Seligmann, 1933
Basel, Galerie Schreiner, Kurt Seligmann, 1977
Ithaca, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, A Private Eye: Dada, Surrealism and more from the Brandt Collection, 2006, illustrated in the catalogue p. 141

Jakovski Anatole, H. Erni, H. Schiess, K. Seligmann, S.H. Taeber-Arp, G. Vuilliamy, Paris, 1934, illustrated p. 37

The board is stable. There is an uneven varnish preventing UV light from fully penetrating. However there is no signs of retouching under UV light. There are some surface losses particularly along the right and left edges revealing the second layer of pigment. There are a few tiny deeper losses to the left part of the composition and the the right edge, a few of which relate to small nails in the support. There are fine lines of vertical craquellure entirely stable thoughout and a network of paint shrinkage to the black pigment in the lower part of the composition. There are areas of dirt and this work could benefit from a clean. Otherwise this work is in overall good condition.
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Painted only a few years after his arrival in Paris, Buste d'Homme is emblematic of Kurt Seligmann's early works. At the time, the Swiss painter met with artists Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp and Jean Hélion and his works testify to his proximity with the Surrealist circle. A member of the Abstraction-Creation group, the young painter took part in many group exhibitions (Salon des Surindépendants in Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, etc.). At the time this painting was made, he had just had his first solo show, organized by the Galerie Jeanne Bucher in 1932. It was also at this time that he befriended with André Breton (whom he moved away from eleven years later) and became a member of the Surrealist group.

Still a long way from his fantastical compositions that were to become his familiar style in the United States from the 1940s, Buste d'Homme (initially titled Homme antipathique on the reverse) testifies to the various influences that inspired Seligmann during his Parisian period. The biomorphic forms used in this masterful portrait, punctuated with precise, ornamental details echo the compositions of Joan Miro from the second half of the 1920s (such as Main attrapant un oiseau, 1925, Fondation Miro, Barcelona) or certain works by Hans Arp painted in the 1930s and similar to the large format Surrealist compositions. If the forms and motifs evolved over time in Seligmann's art, the chromatic palette used here is similar to that of his late paintings and certain of the techniques employed by the artists such as spritz sprayed inks technique can be found in this masterful composition as well as other major works by the artist.