Lot no. 1
Unica ZÜRN (1916-1970)
Untitled, 1963
Pen and ink on paper.
Signed, dated and located in Paris lower right.
64 x 49 cm on view
(Small damp stains)
Related work :
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de l'Hôpital Sainte-Anne, Inv. n°0273, "Untitled, 1961", Ink on paper, 50 x 67 cm.
Unica Zürn met Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) in Berlin in 1953. Living in Paris, the couple moved between the Dadaists and the Surrealists, meeting Grosz, Ernst, Éluard and Bataille. She also met André Breton, Man Ray, Jean Arp and, from 1957, Henri Michaux, who was to play a key role in her work. Bellmer introduced her to the anagram, a literary construction based on a word in which the order of the letters is changed. Unica created her own rules, handling the automatic and the intentional, disarticulating and recreating a language full of hidden meanings. Indian or coloured ink, coloured pencils, gouache or watercolour are the tools of a fantastic universe, a kind of medieval bestiary, inhabited by chimeras or monsters from the depths. The brushwork is spidery, all scrolls and embroidery. A first and then a second exhibition were held in Paris in 1956, with André Pieyre de Mandiargues as foreword to the catalogue.
Unica Zürn was interned at Sainte-Anne between 1961 and 1963. This period of hospitalisation was highly productive artistically, thanks in particular to the help of Hans Bellmer and Henri Michaux, who regularly provided her with notebooks in which to draw. She also took part in the hospital's therapeutic workshops. Her output was considerable, and the Sainte-Anne Collection now houses five of her works. The artist took her own life in 1970. She is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery alongside her companion, Hans Bellmer.
Expert appraisal: Cabinet Chanoit
