CHEZ COLETTE CREUZEVAULT - LA SALLE À MANGER, 3rd FLOOR - Lot 42

CHEZ COLETTE CREUZEVAULT - LA SALLE À MANGER, 3rd FLOOR Max ERNST (1891-1976) Chéri Bibi [1973] Green patina bronze proof. Signed, numbered "98/175" and stamped "Valsuani - Cire" on the base. 33 x 18 x 17 cm Provenance: Colette Creuzevault Collection Colette Creuzevault, Paris. By descent. Exhibitions : - Max Ernst Sculptures, Malmö Konsthall, November 4, 1995 - January 14, 1996, catalog, a similar example reproduced on p. 177. - Max Ernst Sculptures, Ida Gianelli, Milan, May 16 - September 15, 1996, catalog, a similar example reproduced on p. 173. Bibliography : - Max Ernst: Sculptures Maisons Paysages, Werner Spies, Paris, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, 1998, a similar copy reproduced on p. 183. - Max Ernst: Plastiche Werke, Jurgen Pech, Cologne, DuMont Buchverlag, 2005, a similar copy reproduced on p. 207. This work was conceived in 1973 from a 1964 plaster model, and cast in bronze at a later date by Valsuani Paris, in a numbered edition of 175 plus 15 artist's proofs. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Dr. Jürgen Pech, Bonn, and a certificate will be given to the purchaser. This work will be included in the eighth volume of The Complete Works of Max Ernst, currently in preparation. Max Ernst was inspired by the hero of Gaston Leroux's novel Chéri Bibi, who chooses to change his face through plastic surgery. "In Max Ernst's bronze, the location of the figure is uncertain. The pedestal is made up of two hemispheres of different sizes placed one against the other, thus abstractly but clearly realizing the hero's fateful situation. The rectangle of the body forms such a massive and complete background for the round silhouette of the head, that the impression of massive physicality is created. The face itself is not sculpted, but imprinted in the plate-like surface of the head. But at the same time, the hero's carefree calm is expressed in the protruding language. Max Ernst brings together in the image the tense opposition of the literary model, the uncertain circumstances of life and the nonetheless self-conscious attitude of the fictional character." Jürgen Pech, Lieve Bibi, in Max Ernst - Plastische werken, Cologne, 2005, p. 206.