This special collection of Max Ernst works offered across Phillips’ fall sale season comes directly from the personal collection of the renowned filmmaker Peter Schamoni. Encompassing a range of works in a variety of mediums from the 1920s through to the 1960s, the collection reflects key moments in the artist’s career and personal life, highlighting Ernst’s consistent interest in scientific modes of inquiry and discovery, especially in mathematics and astronomy. Ernst and Schamoni worked closely together on several collaborative projects, including the short 1966 film Maximiliana oder die widerrechtliche Ausübung der Astromomie (Maximiliana and the Illegal Practice of Astronomy), by which the collection title is inspired. Representing the depth of their personal and professional relationship, the collection also includes works that were made especially for these film projects and were gifted directly to Schamoni by Ernst. Exhibited extensively and previously on long-term loan to the Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, the works were also included in the internationally renowned 2013 exhibition Entdeckungsfahrten zu Max Ernst Die Sammlung Peter Schamoni.
Provenance
Dorothea Tanning, New York Peter Schamoni, Munich
Exhibited
Münster, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Max Ernst läßt grüßen: Peter Schamoni begegnet Max Ernst, September 27, 2009–January 10, 2010, p. 110 (illustrated) Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, Entdeckungsfahrten zu Max Ernst Die Sammlung Peter Schamoni, February 24–June 23, 2013, pp. 100–101, 177 (illustrated, p. 101)
Literature
Werner Spies, Sigrid Metken and Günter Metken, eds., Max Ernst Œuvre-Katalog. Max Ernst Werke 1939–1953, Cologne, 1987, no. 2892, p. 302 (illustrated)
Maximiliana: Max Ernst from the Collection of Peter Schamoni
signed "max ernst" lower right; signed and dedicated "a Dorothea with love Max Ernst" on the reverse oil on plasterboard 10 1/8 x 4 7/8 in. (25.7 x 12.4 cm) Executed circa 1951.