Ferdinand Springer
'Arbre-Homme' (Tree-Man) —Mid-Century European Surrealism
1945

Name: 'Arbre-Homme' (Tree-Man) —Mid-Century European Surrealism
Brand: Ferdinand Springer
Price: 2188.17 AUD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (52 reviews)

$1,400

£1,061.55

€1,226.08

CA$1,964.29

A$2,188.17

CHF 1,154.23

MX$26,532.24

NOK 14,683.41

SEK 13,678.53

DKK 9,155.62

About the Item

Ferdinand Springer, 'Arbre-Homme', engraving, 1945, edition 23. Signed and numbered '23/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, buff wove paper, the full sheet with margins (2 1/2 to 4 1/8 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 10 11/16 x 7 3/16 inches; sheet size 17 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. "... his painting has the simplicity, the diaphanous purity, the free curve, light-dark, unexpressed, inexpressible, and power also invites us to dream and to open the doors of mystery." —Bernard Dorival. Catalog of the retrospective "Ferdinand Springer", Museum of Fine Arts, Caen, France, 1973. ABOUT THE ARTIST Painter and printmaker Ferdinand Springer (1907-1998) was born in Berlin to a German father and a Swiss mother. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in art history studies at the University of Zurich. He began painting in 1927, visiting Milan, where he met Giorgio Morandi and Carlo Carrà. In 1928 he moved to Paris where he studied with Roger Bissière at the Académie Ranson. In the early 1930s, Springer worked and taught at Atelier 17 in Paris where he learned engraving from Stanley William Hayter. In 1937, he traveled to New York, where he exhibited at the Julian Levy Gallery and met Alexander Calder and Salvadore Dali. After moving to Grasse in southern France in 1939, he was interned by the Nazis, along with Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer, and Wols at the Tuilerie des Milles camp near Aix-en-Provence. After his release in 1940, Springer returned to Grasse and started the “Grasse Group” with Hans Arp, Sonia Delaunay, Alberto Magnelli, and others. The war's escalation forced him to move to Switzerland, and much of his work from that period was lost. Springer re-launched his career in 1950 and, in 1960, he became a pioneer in the modern engraving revival with Pierre Courtin, Henri-Georges Adam, and Johnny Friedlaender. I wanted to establish a relationship between the forms of my engravings and symbolic objects such as Cycladic idols, masks, totems, paintings on the bark of the Aborigines of Australia. It is the graphic transposition of the spirit of these magical, if not sacred, objects. " —Ferdinand Springer In 1967 Springer was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, the same year that his first retrospective took place, in Heidelberg, Germany. By 1975 he had settled permanently in Grasse, continuing to work and to exhibit throughout Europe and the United States. Springer's work is included in the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art (Paris); the National Library (Paris); Museum of Fine Arts (Rouen); Museum of Modern Art (New York); Brooklyn Museum (New York), the Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; the Fogg Art Museum, Massachusetts; the LIbrary of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Yale University Print Collection (Connecticut); Mill College Library, California; California Palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco); Kunstmuseum Basel; Kunstmuseum (Bern); and Kunsthalle (Bremen). "There is a moment in the life of a man, as in that of an era, when the circle closes, when everything comes together and when the synthesis is made... It is a moment when the artist manages not to work from nature, but naturally, in accordance with his inner and outer being. " -—Ferdinand Springer

Creator:
Ferdinand Springer (1907 - 1998, German)
Creation Year:
1945
Dimensions:
Height: 10.69 in (27.16 cm)Width: 7.19 in (18.27 cm)
Medium:
Engraving
Movement & Style:
Surrealist
Period:
1940-1949
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Myrtle Beach, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 1039951stDibs: LU53237685802

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