Lot 589
  • 589

ANTONIO SEGUÍ | De cómo los nervios saltan a la vista

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • Antonio Seguí
  • De cómo los nervios saltan a la vista
  • signed and dated 90
  • oil and collage on canvas
  • 59 3/4 by 141 5/8 in. 152 by 360 cm.

Provenance

Private Collection, Paris
Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Paris, 18 June 2007, Lot 59
Galerie Delorme, Paris
Private Collection, Germany 
Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 28 November 2015, Lot 612
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited

Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; Córdoba, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo; Mar del Plata, Teatro Auditorium; Montevideo, Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas y Visuales, Antonio Seguí: Exposición retrospectiva 1958-1990, August 1991 - January 1992, cat. no. 107, p. 138, illustrated 

Literature

Carlos Espartaco Klitenik, Arte y Discurso, Buenos Aires 1993, p. 54, illustrated 

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. The canvas is unlined and well-stretched. The colors are vibrant, and the media layer with all collage elements is stable. Under raking light inspection, a few very faint white pinpoint surface accretions become apparent in the lower left quadrant. Under ultraviolet light inspection, no evidence of inpainting becomes apparent.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Argentine-born artist Antonio Seguí began painting from a young age, immersed in the rich Modernist traditions of his native country. In 1951, he traveled for the first time to France to study painting and sculpture; after a brief return to Buenos Aires, he settled permanently in Paris in 1963. From then, his career flourished in Europe, Latin America and the United States; in 2008, he was made an Officier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres in France, and his work is now held in museum collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and many more.  Seguí’s work evades easy classification; he draws from a deep pool of influences ranging from Argentina’s own traditions of Modernism and Surrealism to Cubism, Mexican Muralism and Neue Sachlikeit (German New Realism). The present work, De cómo los nervios saltan a la vista (How nerves jump into view) is an emblematic example of Seguí’s signature style. A densely populated sea of patchwork figures dart across the canvas, scurrying in and out of buildings, smoking cigarettes, dancing around one another in an intricate urban ballet. Seguí flattens the pictorial plane and distorts the scale of the city such that figures and buildings are the same size, and although they crowd the composition, none seem to acknowledge or even be aware of one another as they bustle about their business. Here, Seguí’s flat planar space reflects the influence of Fernand Léger, while his labyrinthine composition evokes both Argentine Surrealist Alejandro Xul Solar and Paul Klee. In the oblivious, often humorous actions of these figures, Seguí also creates a sardonic atmosphere, commenting lightly on the social isolation and pervasive loneliness of urban life, a tradition that can be traced to George Grosz’s depictions of daily life in interwar Berlin. De cómo los nervios saltan a la vista belongs to the artist’s first series to incorporate collage; the added textural and patterning variation contributes to the overall intensity and graphic power of this outstanding composition.