Lot 282
  • 282

Victor Brauner

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
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Description

  • Victor Brauner
  • DÉTERMINATION D'UN ESPACE
  • signed Victor Brauner and dated 1962 (lower right)

  • oil on canvas
  • 99.9 by 80.8cm., 39 3/8 by 31 7/8 in.

Provenance

Galerie Le Point Cardinal, Paris
Acquired by the present owner in the 1960s

Exhibited

Houston, The Menil Collection, Victor Brauner: Surrealist Hieroglyphs, 2001-02, no. 72


The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Samy Kinge.

Condition

The canvas is not lined and there are no signs of retouching visible under UV light. The work is in good original condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

The present work is a wonderful example of some of Victor Brauner's most iconic artistic elements. His œuvre is characterised by an intrinsic ambience of mystery and naivety that comes from his lifelong fascination for primitive art, particularly that of Egypt and Africa. Alain Jouffroy has argued that his primitive aesthetic was not simply 'an aesthetic and formal borrowing' but that it also corresponded to 'a desire to overcome European traditions' (Alain Jouffrroy, 'Victor Brauner: Beyond Surrealism' in Victor Brauner (exhibition catalogue), Didier Imbert Fine Art, Paris, 1990, p. 24).

Brauner was particularly interested in the ritual and symbolic qualities inherent in primitive art, qualities which he successfully transferred to the present work. Hybrids are a recurrent motif in Brauner's œuvre and indeed animals always play a particularly symbolic role. Determination d'un Espace is a perfect illustration of such symbolism, and in the words as the artist said himself, 'when I paint animals, I identify with them, it's as simple as that [...] a bird means, either you should be a bird, or you were a bird. If you are a bird, you are free' (quoted in Victor Brauner (exhibition catalogue), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1972, pp. 84-85, translated from French).

This painting is ultimately a celebration of the freedom of man. The reduction of the figure to its most essential form, together with the symbolism of the animals, give this work an intrinsic universality, a quality which unifies much of the artist's oeuvre. Remarking upon Brauner's œuvre in general, Alain Jouffroy has argued that 'by its connections with the symbolic systems of various civilizations, it went beyond the traditional dichotomies between the old and the new, the West and the East, spontaneous dreams and reasoned criticism and [...] "the abstract" and "the figurative"' (Alain Jouffroy, op. cit., p. 8).