Art as Jewelry as Art
Art as Jewelry as Art
Property from an Important Private Collection
Max Ernst
Tete à Cornes — 1452
Lot Closed
October 6, 05:33 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from an Important Private Collection
Max Ernst
1891 - 1976
Tete à Cornes —1452
conceived 1959, this example cast after 1979*, signed Max Ernst and stamped with Atelier Hugo reference number 2249 / 1452, edition 2/2, exemplaire d'artiste (artist's proof); stamped with François Hugo goldsmith's mark twice and assay mark on reverse
23k gold pendant in wooden box labeled by hand: Or 23 carats. 923 millièmes, Poids 182gs. Exemplaire No. E.A. 2/2; Poinçon 1es titre du Bureau de la Garantie de Marseille Pièce No. 2249/1452 portant la signature de Max Ernst, et le Poinçon de Maître de François Hugo. Fait dans ses atelier d'Aix en Provence en 1979. Lot sold together with (Book) Stiftung Max Ernst, Brühl, KulturSttiftung der Länder, and Sotheby's Important Tribal Art, New York, November 15 & 16, 1985.
7½ by 5¼ in.; 19 by 13 cm.
182.28 g.
Acquired by descent from the artist to the present owner
SFMoMA, National 1970 Drawing Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Art, California, 1970, p. 40
Diana Du Pont and Katherine C. Holland, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: The Painting and Sculpture Collection, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1985, p. 298
Ernst Schwitters and Sprengel Museum Hannover, Fervor Dadá: Colección Ernst Schwitters, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, 1998, pp. 104, 258
Clare Siaud and Pierre Hugo, Bijoux d'artistes, Artist's Jewels, Hommage à François Hugo, Les Cyprès, Aix-en-Provence, 2001, front cover and pp. 98-9
Ulrich Krempel, Sprengel macht Ernst: die Sammlung Max Ernst : Verzeichnis der Bestände des Sprengel ,MuseumHannover, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, 2006, p. 249
Diana Küppers, Künstlerschmuck = objets d'art, Hirmer, Munich, 2009, p. 75
Max Ernst’s Tête à cornes (horned head) gold pendant is one of the most recognizable objects of his work and part of his collaboration with renowned goldsmith François Hugo in the late 1950s. He loved ‘the rough, chiaroscuro material nature of gilded metal…the perfect balance between intent and technique, a coming full circle of different disciplines.’ (Paola Stroppiana, Scultura Aurea, Gioielli d'Artista per un nuovo Rinascimento, Gli Ori, Pistoia, 2019, p. 90.) This primitive mask design with prominent horns - an unusual use of a fine material like gold, cast solidly into a large form - is a recurring theme in his art, of Surreal abstraction mixed with reality.
Ernst’s love of masks and carvings, among many of his collecting passions, were addressed in the first series of masks created with Hugo between 1959 and 1961 and then a second around 1970, both transposed into jewels by Pierre Hugo.