Lot 109
109
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Colombes et corail (Oiseaux et madrépore)

Details
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Colombes et corail (Oiseaux et madrépore)
signed twice and dated 'max ernst 1932' (lower right)
oil, collage and pencil on paper
19 5/8 x 25 5/8 in. (50.6 x 65.2 cm.)
Executed in 1932
Provenance
Simone Breton-Collinet, Paris, until at least 1979.
Pascal Sernet, Paris.
Galerie André François Petit, Paris.
Galerie Brusberg, Berlin.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 13 October 1994, lot 170.
The Mayor Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2003.
Literature
W. Spies & S. & G. Metken, Max Ernst: Werke 1929-1938, Cologne, 1979, no. 1859, p. 151 (illustrated).
Exhibited
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Max Ernst, December 1962 - March 1963, no. 174, p. 54 (dated '1926'); this exhibition later travelled to Zurich, Kunsthaus, March - April 1963.
Paris, Galerie l'Oeil, Max Ernst, December 1969.
Krefeld, Kunstverein, Max Ernst: Frottagen und Collagen, March - April 1972, no. 38, n.p..
Hannover, Kunstmuseum & Sprengel Museum, Max Ernst: Gemälde, Skulpturen, Collagen, Frottagen, Zeichnungen, Druckgrafik und Bücher, July - September 1981, no. 32, p. 68 (illustrated).
Tubingen, Kunsthalle, Max Ernst: die Welt der Collage, September - November 1988, no. 196, p. 519 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Bern, Kunstmuseum, December 1988 - February 1989; and Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, February - April 1989.
New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Surrealism, September 2000 - January 2001, p. 41 (illustrated p. 41, fig. 33).
New York, Carosso Fine Arts, Max Ernst: A Natural History of the Mind, February - April 2003, no. 19, n.p. (illustrated).
Cologne, Galerie Boisserée, Max Ernst, Skupturen, Arbeiten auf Papier, Radierungen und Lithographien, September - November 2013, no. 2, n.p. (illustrated).
Special Notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

'On a rainy evening I found myself in a hotel on the French coast when I was gripped by an obsession that made me stare excitedly at the deeply grooved cracks in the floorboards. I decided to yield to the symbolism of the obsession. To sustain my potential for meditation and hallucination, I made a series of sketches on the floorboards by arbitrarily placing a few sheets of paper on them and then began to rub on them with black pencil. When I closely scrutinzed the sketches thus made - "the dark areas and other, delicately lit half-dark areas" – I was amazed at the sudden intensification of my visionary capabilities and the hallucinatory result of the contrasting pictures.' -Max Ernst.

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