Kurt Leopold Seligmann (1900–1962) was a Swiss-American
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
painter and
engraver. He was known for his fantastic imagery of medieval
troubadors
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...
and
knights in macabre
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
s and inspired by the
carnival held annually in his native
Basel, Switzerland
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
.
Life and career
Born in Basel in 1900, the son of a furniture department store owner, his parents were not in favor of Seligmann's artistic aspirations but eventually relented. After studying at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
and spending several years working in his father's business in Basel, Seligmann left for Paris where he met with his friends from Geneva, sculptor
Alberto Giacometti and art critic
Pierre Courthion. During this time, he also met
Ivy Langton. Through Giacometti he met
Hans Arp and
Jean Hélion
Jean Hélion (April 21, 1904October 27, 1987) was a French painter whose abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. He w ...
, who admired his sinister bio-morphic paintings and invited him to join their group, Abstraction-Creation Art Non-Figuratif.
In the mid-1930s his work began to take on a more
baroque aspect, as he animated the prancing figures in his paintings and etchings with festoons of ribbons, drapery, and heraldic paraphernalia. Around 1935, Seligmann met and married Arlette Paraf, granddaughter of the founder of the
Wildenstein Gallery. Together they traveled extensively, first around the world during a year-long honey-moon trip in 1936 and then to North America and British Columbia in 1938, to explore American ethnographic art. In 1937, Seligmann was accepted as a member of the Surrealist group in Paris by
André Breton, who collected his work and included him in Surrealist exhibitions.
At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Seligmann arrived in New York for an exhibition of his work at the
Karl Nierendorf
Karl Nierendorf (18 April 1889 – 25 October 1947) was a German banker and later, art dealer. He was particularly known for championing the work of contemporary Expressionists in Cologne and Berlin before the War, especially Paul Klee, Otto Dix, a ...
Gallery. Once there, however, with Surrealist artists being targeted by Nazis, he began to aid those in France and bring them to safety. The correspondence he maintained during this period is preserved in a collection at the Beinicke Rare Book Library at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
Seligmann's art continued to evolve and reached maturity during the 1940s in the United States. Beginning in 1940, he and Arlette lived at the Beaux Arts Building at Fortieth Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and later they acquired a farm north of the city in the hamlet of
Sugar Loaf, New York
Sugar Loaf is a mixed-use hamlet in Orange County, New York, United States. It is located in the Town of Chester, within view of Sugar Loaf mountain.
History
The hamlet of Sugar Loaf, New York, was founded in the late 1740s as a waypoint alo ...
(in Orange County). Seligmann befriended many American artists as well as the art historian,
Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for developing new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art. An expert on earl ...
. With Schapiro as author, in 1944 he produced a limited edition set of six etchings illustrating the Myth of
Oedipus. In 1948, a book called ''The History of Magic'' was published under his name by Pantheon Books. After the war, his work began to be exhibited widely and acquired by museums throughout the United States and Europe.
Seligmann taught at various colleges in New York City, particularly at
Brooklyn College, from which he retired in 1958. The changing nature of the New York art world, as it embraced
Abstract Expressionism, caused his work to be relegated to art history and perceived as passé. Due to illness, he gave up his Manhattan apartment and retired to his farm, where he died of an accidentally self-inflicted gunshot wound in January 1962.
Shortly before his death in 1962, his widow, Arlette Seligmann, bequeathed the entire Seligmann estate to the ''Orange County Citizens Foundation'', a private nonprofit corporation dedicated to the preservation of
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
, New York. The foundation now serves as Seligmann's official estate and uses the Seligmann's farm as their office. The U.S. copyright representative for the Orange County Citizen's Foundation and the estate of Kurt Seligmann is the
Artists Rights Society
Artists Rights Society (ARS) is a copyright, licensing, and monitoring organization for visual artists in the United States. Founded in 1987, ARS is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and as such repr ...
.
Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society
At the request of the Orange County Citizens Foundation, artist, Jonathan Talbot, undertook the restoration of Kurt Seligmann's printing press which is located on the Seligmann property in Sugar Loaf.
References
* Miller, Stephen Robeson, https://web.archive.org/web/20070421140209/http://www.occf-ny.org/seligmann.htm, Boston, Ma. 1995
* Sawin, Martica, ''Surrealism in exile and the Beginning of the New York School'', Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995
* Seligmann, Kurt, ''The History of Magic'', Pantheon Books, 1948
External links
* Kurt Seligmann Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seligmann, Kurt
1900 births
1962 deaths
20th-century Swiss painters
Swiss male painters
Ballet designers
Brooklyn College faculty
Firearm accident victims in the United States
Deaths by firearm in New York (state)
Accidental deaths in New York (state)
20th-century Swiss male artists
Swiss emigrants to the United States