Lot 349
  • 349

Oscar Dominguez

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Oscar Dominguez
  • Batalla or La vole lion (The Battle or The Fighting Lion)
  • signed Dominguez (upper right)
  • oil on canvas
  • 64.5 by 91.5cm., 25 3/8 by 36in.

Provenance

André Breton, Paris
Galleria Levi, Milan (acquired in 1940)
Acoris, The Surrealist Art Centre, London
Sale: Ader, Tajan, 20th March 1990, lot 97
Galería Edurne, Madrid
Galería Vegueta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

Milan, Galleria Levi, 1974, no. 65

Literature

Fernando Castro, Óscar Domínguez y el Surrealismo, Madrid, 1978, no. 361, illustrated p. 174

Condition

The canvas is not lined. Examination under UV light reveals a milky varnish preventing UV light from fully penetrating. However, UV light reveals an area of retouching towards the centre of the lower edge as well as a few further spots of retouching to the left half of the composition, all of which are associated to paint losses. There is a horizontal surface scratch, approximately 10cm. long, with some associated paint loss and retouching towards the centre of the right edge. There are three spots of paint loss to the composition and the canvas is slightly undulating in the lower left corner. This work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

During the 1940's, Oscar Domínguez’s paintings were strongly influenced by Pablo Picasso with whom the artist had become friends while living in Paris. Certainly, the influence of Picasso’s Guernica (1937) can be detected in the angular and dynamic forms of the present composition. The first owner of Batalla or La Vole Lion (The Battle or The Fighting Lion) was the leader of the Surrealist group André Breton. Breton’s fundamentally important role in the course of twentieth century art began with his friendship of Guillaume Apollinaire, who introduced him to Picasso, de Chirico and Derain. Throughout the 1930s in Paris and much of the 1940s in America, Breton acted as a critic and champion of these artists and his passionate avowal of their art led them to international recognition and acclaim. Understandably this also ensured that Breton possessed a diverse and truly exceptional collection of their best works, much of which has found its way into museums across the world, including the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Breton celebrated, among many others, the energised quality of Domínguez’s compositions in his 1939 Des tendances les plus récentes de la peinture surréaliste. Domínguez, he described, was a painter who could, 'with a movement of the arm as unstudied and quick as that of a window cleaner or the worker who, with the house finished, signs his name in blanc d'Espagne, use his brush to add diverse colours, stroke by stroke, and succeed in defining new spaces – barely marked or hinted at – that transport us into those realms of pure fascination that have remained unvisited since, as children, we contemplated colour images of meteors in books' (André Breton quoted in La Part du jeu et du rêve. Oscar Domínguez et le surréalisme 1906-1957 (exhibition catalogue), Musée Cantini, Marseille, 2005, p. 199, translated from the French).