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Copyright estate of the artist | | | Seligmann, Kurt (1900 - 1962) USA
Magnetic Mountain, 1949
Oil on canvas; 163.5 x 188.5 x 3.2 cm Surrealism
UID 102-525
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Biography
American painter, commercial designer, sculptor and writer born in Switzerland. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva (1920) and at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence (1927). In 1929, Seligman moved to Paris, where he joined the Surrealists and became a member of the Abstraction-Création group. He was influenced by the work of Arp and Le Corbusier, who drove him to explore biomorphic imagery. Although he did not officially join the Surrealist movement until 1937, Seligman participated in a number of their exhibitions during the 30s. His themes are very suggestive, apparently based on mythology or taken from a purely magical sense of transformation. His interest in religion, in the history of the occult, in ethnology and anthropology were close to the intellectual concerns of Breton and other Surrealists, although the artist was always considered a little on the fringe of the movement. In 1939, he emigrated to the United States and took American citizenship. He met with other exiled European artists, particularly those associated with the Surrealist movement. His work became lighter and more elegant. He designed costumes for ballet and modern dance, showing a rather Surrealist interpretation of the arts and his own sympathy for literature and illustration.
Exhibitions
Painting in the United States Carnegie Institute, USA 13-10-1949 ~ 11-12-1949
Kurt Seligmann, Basel Art 25 '94' The Mayor Gallery, United Kingdom 14-06-1994 ~ 20-06-1994
El Surrealismo entre el Viejo y Nuevo Mundo Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Spain 01-12-1988 ~ 28-02-1989
O Surrealismo na Colecção Berardo - Estranho Desenho Palácio da Galeria, Câmara Municipal de Tavira, Portugal 12-07-2003 ~ 14-09-2003
O Surrealismo na Colecção Berardo - Estranho Desenho, Sintra Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo (SMAM-CB), Portugal 04-07-2001 ~ 30-06-2001
Fernando Lemos and Surrealism - The Berardo Collection Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo (SMAM-CB), Portugal 26-11-2005 ~ 18-06-2006
Fernando Lemos e o Surrealismo - Colecção Berardo Centro das Artes Casa das Mudas, Calheta, Madeira, Portugal 08-07-2006 ~ 31-01-2007
Berardo Museum Opening Museu Colecção Berardo, Portugal 25-06-2007 ~ 24-08-2008
Bibliography
Basel Art 25 '94 Kurt Seligmann, 1994 Published by The Mayor Gallery
Colecção Berardo Collection 1917-1999, 2000 Published by CCB - Centro Cultural de Belém ISBN 972817652X
Collection Berardo, Oeuvres Choisies du 20e Siècle, 2001 Published by Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon ISBN 2711843319
Fernando Lemos and Surrealism , 2005 Published by Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo
Fernando Lemos e o Surrealismo – Colecção Berardo, 2006 Published by Centro das Artes - Casa das Mudas ISBN 9728902034
O Surrealismo na Colecção Berardo - Estranho Desenho, 2003 Published by Palácio da Galeria, Câmara Municipal de Tavira ISBN 9728705050
O Surrealismo na Colecção Berardo - Estranho Desenho, 2001 Published by Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna - Colecção Berardo ISBN 9729742847
Painting in the United States, 1949 Published by Carnegie Institute
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