Max Ernst - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale - Morning Session New York Thursday, November 18, 2021 | Phillips

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  • 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.

     

    Max Ernst and Peter Schamoni. Photographed by Viktor Schamoni. Courtesy of the Estate of Peter Schamoni
    Max Ernst and Peter Schamoni. Photographed by Viktor Schamoni. Courtesy of the Estate of Peter Schamoni
    • Provenance

      Dorothea Tanning, New York
      Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Los Angeles, The Copley Galleries, Max Ernst, 30 years of his work, a Survey, January 10–February 20, 1949, p. 25 (illustrated)
      Kunstverein St. Gallen, Dichtende Maler—malende Dichter, 1957, no. 210 (illustrated)
      Neuss, Clemens-Sels-Museum, Max Ernst, Lithographien, Radierungen, Collagen und Frottagen, July–September 1961, no. 42
      Krefeld, Kunstverein, Max Ernst, Frottagen und Collagen, March–April 1972, no. 65
      Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, Entdeckungsfahrten zu Max Ernst Die Sammlung Peter Schamoni, February 24–June 23, 2013, pp. 104–105, 176 (illustrated, pp. 104–105)

    • Literature

      Patrick Waldberg, Max Ernst, Paris, 1958, p. 46 (illustrated)
      Max Ernst, Graphik 1919–1967, exh. cat., Worpsweder Kunsthalle, 1967, no. 14, pp. 15, 19 (illustrated, p. 19)
      Max Ernst, Das graphische Werk, exh. cat., Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1967, p. 54 (illustrated)
      Lothar Fischer, ed., Max Ernst in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Hamburg, 1969, p. 114 (illustrated)
      Max Ernst, exh. cat., Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1969, p. 23 (illustrated)
      Max Ernst, exh. cat., Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 1970, Schmutzpapier (illustrated)
      Jean-Dominique Rey, "Max Ernst ou l'oiseau magicien," Jardin des Arts, no. 197, April 1971, p. 8 (illustrated)
      Werner Spies, Max Ernst—Collagen, Inventar und Widerspruch, Cologne, 1974, no. 499, n.p. (illustrated)
      Werner Spies, Sigrid Metken and Günter Metken, eds., Max Ernst Œuvre-Katalog. Max Ernst Werke 1939–1953, Cologne, 1987, no. 2673, p.193 (illustrated)
      M. E. Warlick, Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth, Austin, 2001, fig. 6.17, pp. 178–179 (illustrated, p. 179)

Maximiliana: Max Ernst from the Collection of Peter Schamoni

105

Strange Hallucination!

inscribed "no 1" lower right of the collage; signed "max ernst" lower right of the handwritten letter
collage and ink on paper, mounted on card
collage 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 in. (21 x 13.7 cm)
artist's mount 10 5/8 x 7 3/8 in. (27 x 18.7 cm)

Executed in 1948, this work includes a collage mounted alongside an inscribed text by the artist of the poem “Täuscht Mich das Trommelfell,” the English version of which appears in Ernst’s larger work Paramyths.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Sold for $6,930

Contact Specialist

John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session, New York
+1 212 940 1261
jmccord@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale - Morning Session

New York Auction 18 November 2021