Schwarz collection exhibition 2014

Gilden’s Arts Gallery presents:

Homage to Arturo Schwarz July 2014

“...I hate the word ‘collectionism’. All what I gathered was not done in the name of the private property, but for the love for art, particularly for Surrealism, which deeply marked my life ” Arturo Umberto Samuele Schwarz , June 2014

We are proud to be able to present our new exhibition showcasing a selection of works on paper and ready-mades from the Arturo Schwartz gallery.

Arturo Umberto Samuele Schwarz, son of a German father and an Italian mother, is an Italian scholar, art historian, poet, writer and curator. He was born in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1924 and lived there until 1949, when he moved to Milan. There he opened his gallery and started collecting important pieces of Dada and Surrealist Art, including many works by personal friends, such as Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Man Ray, and Jean Arp. The Schwarz gallery started as an avant-garde publishing house. In April 1952, when he was twenty eight-years old, Arturo Schwartz started his career in one of the Milan’s suburban backstreets. He soon won a name for himself printing texts by authors then almost unpublished in Italy, - André Breton, Albert Einstein, Daniel Guerin, Pierre Naville, Benjamin Peret, Leon Trotsky – and monographs concerning the new cultural climate that developed in the post-war period.

The young publisher’s classical education (degrees in philosophy and natural sciences), along with his activity as a Surrealist poet and writer, had, since 1944, predisposed him to an interest in European avant-gardes.

He combined his activity as an art dealer with a strong philanthropic need. During a recent interview in June 2014, he said: “A man is many things at the same time and there is no contradiction between being a merchant and having the need to transmit a heritage.

There is a spiritual willing which goes beyond the money and it is stronger than that. That’s why I donated around a thousand works to four big international museums”.

“Though I am an agnostic, I am profoundly attached to the ethical values of Judaism,'' he said. ''For us, a good act is a commandment. Besides, I feel it is immoral that a private person should egoistically keep hold of something that the community could usefully enjoy.''

MENASHE KADISHMAN, b. 1932 Hand Signed Metal cutout Provenance: Collection Rita Schwartz.

Dedicated to Arturo Schwarz by the artist

The gallery was closed in 1975, after twenty-one years of activity. Despite the closure of this important art centre, Schwarz continued to have an active and busy cultural life. In 1994 he was elected to the board of governors of the University of Tel Aviv which rewarded him with a degree in philosophy and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. He is also an honorary fellow of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, having donated his seven hundreds-piece collection of Dada and Surrealist art to the museum. He also donated an important collection to the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.

Schwarz’s passion for Surrealism exploded after reading the Manifesto by André Breton.

In the early 40s he sent Breton some pieces of poetry and Breton replied encouraging him to write. Then Schwarz decided to join the Surrealist group. He was happy to be in touch with artists who were “extremely free and intellectually honest”. He first met Duchamp in 1945 and they became close friends.

The first exhibition was organised at the first venue, a bookshop in Via Sant’Andrea, in May 1954 and was a homage to Marcel Duchamp. Schwarz chose to put on display books, etchings and some sculptures. In the same month he organised a very interesting exhibition showing the books of the main Surrealist poets (Breton, Char, Eluard, Lautremont, Prevert and others), illustrated by the main surrealist artists (Brauner, Dali, Miro, Masson, Tanguy) and published at Guy Levis-Mano in Paris.

Eight exhibitions were curated in the first venue in the first year. The gallery moved to via del Gesu in 1961. The opening of the new gallery marked the start of a very busy time. An exhibition of the Dadaist artist Marcel Janco in October 1961 inaugurated the new space. Schwarz organised thirteen different exhibitions in that year, including a solo show of works by Victor Brauner and a self presentation held by Rene Magritte.

From 1954 he organised a series of exhibition which included many first Italian showings: among the Dadaists, Duchamp, Janco, Man Ray, Richter, Schad; among the Surrealists, Masson and Matta; among the Futurists, Farfa. He was also interested in “Concetto Spaziale� and Fontana.

The following pages show important and representative works of these rich years of intense cultural activity in Milan.

- Gilden's Arts Gallery MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 An Original Revolutionary Fauce:Mirrorical return, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on paper Plate Size: 17.5 x 13.2 cm / 6.8 x 5.2 in

The caption reads: “Un robinet original revolutionnaire, renvoi miriorique? Un robinet qui s’arrete de couler quand on ne l’ecoute pas”, which translates “An original revolutionary faucet, mirrorical return? A Faucet which stops dripping when nobody is listening to it”.

In this work Duchamp pays his tribute to his 1917 Readymade, Fountain, an ordinary men’s –room urinal that he sent to the first exhibition of the Society of Independents in New York.

The etching process requires the preparation of a plate in reverse, in effect, a mirror image of the final result.

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MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 Degree in Reading, 1964 Original Hand Signed Lithograph on vellum paper Plate Size: 31 x 45.5 cm / 12.2 x 17.9 in The work was commissioned for il reale assoluto (title page), a volume of poems by Arturo Schwarz, with ten additional lithographs by Man Ray, published by Galleria Schwarz in Milan in 1964.

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MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 The Large Glass and other related Works, 1968 Eight Original Etching on wove paper watermarked Large Glass Portfolio Size: 41 x 25 cm / 16.1 x 9.8

- Gilden's Arts Gallery MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 Deluxe Edition Exhibition Catalogue, Ronny Van de Velde, Antwerp, 1991 Mixed media, Wood box containing exhibition catalogue and other objects 37.2 x 37.2 x 6 cm / 14.5 x 14.5 x 2.4 in.

This is an exact reproduction of Marcel Duchamp's "Chess Board" (1937) created as a box containing: - A list of exhibits, 64 pages with black and white illustrations.

- A portfolio with faithful reproductions of works by Duchamp.

- A loosely inserted photograph of the artist at 85.

- A colophon leaf.

- A book with articles by Andre Breton and Arturo Schwartz, 34 x 24 cm dust jacket bearing the reproduction of Jaquette(a refused cover by Duchamp from 1956).

- An audiocassette with an interview with Duchamp, and Duchamp reading his text "The Creative Act". Cover of this cassette has a miniature reproduction of Duchamp´s cover for "Le Surrealisme" in 1947

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MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 Announcement for the Exhibition 'Doors', 1968 Original Hand signed and Numbered Impression and Cut-out on acetate 28.1 x 19.7 cm / 11 x 7.7 in

This work is a representation of the doors designed by Duchamp in 1937 for Andre Breton’s gallery Gradiva at 31 rue de Seine, Paris. After the gallery was closed down, the door was destroyed.

Our work was used as an announcement of the Doors exhibition at Cordier & Ekstrom, New York (March 19 – April 20, 1968).

Duchamp produced miniatures of the door, both on paper and acetate. In addition, he created a “life-size” plexiglass replica of his Gradiva glass entrance.

- Gilden's Arts Gallery PIERRE ALECHINSKY b. 1927 Head inside the Head, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching in Colours on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

Pierre Alechinsky is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to Tachisme, Abstract Expressionism, and Lyrical Abstraction and it is exhibited in the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Tate, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Nova South-eastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

- Gilden's Arts Gallery ARMAN PIERRE FERNANDEZ 1928-2005 Nails and Screws, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on wove paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

Arman Fernandes, known as Arman, was born in Nice in 1928.

What he looked for in art was a representation of nature, of our contemporary nature, industrial and mechanic. He looked into our reality, starting from whatever was not considered a possibility in traditional art. Schwarz showed his works in several solo exhibition during these years and these are fine examples of that.

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ARMAN PIERRE FERNANDEZ 1928-2005 Keys, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on wove paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery ARMAN PIERRE FERNANDEZ 1928-2005 Le Plein (Full Up), 1960 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Sardine Tin Box filled with Trash 3 x 10.5 x 6 cm / 1.4 x 4.2 x 2.4 in This work was created as an invitation to the exhibition “Le plein” on the 25th of October, 1960 at the Iris Clert Gallery, Paris. Another example of this invitation can be found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Galerie Iris Clert held two pioneering exhibitions. The first was Klein's, le Vide which opened on April 28, 1958. For this occasion Klein completely emptied the gallery except for a single bare display case, painted it a single shade of glossy white, and called it art.

Klein said: “My paintings are now invisible and I would like to show them in a clear and positive manner, in my next Parisian exhibition at Iris Clert’s” In October 1960, Arman a close friend of Klein’s since childhood, exhibited in the Iris Clert Gallery. Arman’s exhibition was called Le Plein (The Full-Up). Le Plein was a direct contradiction of Klein’s Void: Arman filled the small gallery to the brim with garbage. So much garbage, in fact, that the exhibition could only be viewed from the storefront window.

Invitations to the exhibition were sent in small sardine cans, with the words "Arman – Le Plein – Iris Clert" printed simply on the pull-away top. Klein himself was supportive of his friend’s reversal, declaring "After my own emptiness comes Arman’s fullness. The universal memory of art was lacking his conclusive mummification of quantification."

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MARY BAUERMESTEIR b.1934 Yes (to love) / Si (all’amore), 1972 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 24.5 x 38 cm / 9.6 x 14.9 in Exhibited in the solo exhibition in 1972, the work is a good explanation of what the artist meant for art. Art is a proposal, different for every work. Philosophy and music tend to tidy objects in their space.

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CARL BUCHHEISTER 1890-1964 Kompositon Jaerve, 1962 Original Hand Signed, Dated, Numbered and Titled Etching on BFK Rives wove paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in Carl Buchheister was one of the pioneers of the German Abstract Avant guard, friend of Kandinsky and Schwitters in the Twenties and Thirties, banned by the Nazis on 1933.

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ALIK CAVALIERE 1926-1998 Flowers in a Field, 1963 Original Hand Signed Etching on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

Alik Cavaliere, one of the main Post War Italian artists, explored nature in various forms. With his works he testified the perfection of nature in the same years when artists started to investigate informal and conceptual art.

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ALIK CAVALIERE 1926-1998 Eve’s Apple, 1961 Original Hand Signed Etching on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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BERNARD SCHULZE 1915 - 2005 Branches and Leaves, 1960 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

Similarly to Cavaliere, Bernard Schulze’s fascination with nature is in all his works, but moving to a new direction. The artist belonged to the last great names and precursors of German PostWar-Abstraction.

Important exhibitions have been dedicated to the artist's work since the 1980s, for example the extensive retrospective exhibition in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Saarbrücken in 1980-81 and the retrospective exhibition of his graphic work in the Albertina in Vienna and other museums in Germany in 1984.

A large selection of his works toured to Cologne, Bologna and Budapest between 1994 and 1996.

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KONRAD KLAPHECK b.1935 Part I (The Bombshell and her Companion ), 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Aquatint on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in Konrad Klapheck’s art combines in a very fascinating way features of realism, Surrealism and Pop art.

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KONRAD KLAPHECK b.1935 Drill I (the Intellectuals), 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Aquatint on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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FARFA (Vittorio Osvaldo Tommasini) 1881-1964 In Motion / In Movimento, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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FARFA (Vittorio Osvaldo Tommasini) 18811964 Futurist Composition, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on wove paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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Sergio d’Angelo was born in Milan in 1932.

He studied in Milan, Switzerland and France, and travelled intensing around Europe, ending up living in Bruxelels for a few years. meeting many Surrelist Artists and the main representatives of the International avant guard.

In the Sixties he became interested in Asian Culture and calligraphie. He realised "hand-mades" in contrast with"ready-mades" of Duchamp.

SERGIO D’ANGELO b. 1932 Untitled Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching with Collage and Watercolour on vellum paper 31 x 23 cm / 12.2 x 9 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Gastone Novelli was born in Vienna in 1925. He received his classical education in Rome, where he had moved with his family, and became involved in the Resistance in 1943. He was arrested and then freed the following year.

After the war he started painting and producing graphic works that were greatly influenced by the NeoConstructivist theories of Max Bill, who he had met while staying in Zurich in 1947.

In 1950 he moved to Brazil and devoted himself to the applied arts, teaching, and research into Geometrical Abstraction. In 1951 and 1953 he participated in the SĂŁo Paulo Biennial. In December 1954 he went back to Rome. In 1957 he took several trips to Paris and met the Surrealists Tristan Tzara, AndrĂŠ Masson, Man Ray, and Hans Arp. He exhibited at Galleria La Salita in Rome and was clearly influenced by Art Informel. He died in Milan in 1968.

GASTONE NOVELLI 1925 - 1968 Letro di Guido: Neeed Dop Doop, Thank you so Much for Everything, 1964 Original Hand Signed, Dated and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 30.5 x 19.3 cm / 12 x 7.5 in

A friend and compatriot of Tristan Tzara, MARCEL JANCO was among the founders of the Dadaist movement in 1916. In 1922, Janco returned to Romania, where he gained fame as a painter and architect. In 1941, fleeing the Nazis, he moved to Palestine, and was one of the founders of the New Horizons Group (1948). The Janco-Dada Museum, which opened in 1983, features Janco's work and explores the history of the Dada movement.

MARCEL JANCO 1895-1984 Composition, 1961 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Man Ray was one of the leading spirits of Dada and Surrealism and the only American artist to play a prominent role in the launching of those two influential movements.

MAN RAY 1890-1976 Book with Glasses Il Reale Assoluto, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Lithograph on Japon nacrĂŠ paper Plate Size: 31.5 x 24 cm / 12.4 x 9.4 in

MAN RAY 1890-1976 The Shoe from Il Reale Assoluto, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Lithograph on Japon nacrĂŠ paper Plate Size: 31.5 x 24 cm / 12.4 x 9.4 in

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MAN RAY 1890-1976 Hand with Gemini from Il Reale Assoluto, 1964 Original hand Signed and Numbered Lithograph on Japon nacrĂŠ paper Plate size: 31.5 x 24 cm / 12.4 x 9.4 in

MAN RAY 1890-1976 Telephone from Il Reale Assoluto, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Lithograph on Japon nacrĂŠ paper Plate Size: 31.5 x 24 cm / 12.4 x 9.4 in

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MAN RAY 1890-1976 Portrait de Lautreamont, 1950 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching with Aquatint on paper Plate Size: 14.5 x 10.5 cm / 5.7 x 4.1 in

MAN RAY 1890-1976 Portrait d’Isidore Ducasse Comte de Lautreamont, 1963 Original hand Signed and Numbered Etching on paper Plate Size: 14.3 x 11.5 cm / 5.7 x 4.5 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta was an international figure whose worldview represented a synthesis of European, American, and Latin American cultures. As a member of the Surrealist movement and an early mentor to several Abstract Expressionists, Matta broke with both groups to pursue a highly personal artistic vision. His mature work blended abstraction, figuration, and multi-dimensional spaces into complex, cosmic landscapes. Matta's long and prolific career was defined by a strong social conscience and an intense exploration of his internal and external worlds.

ROBERTO MATTA 1911-2002 Horseman, 1964 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Aquatint on vellum paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

ROBERTO MATTA 1911-2002 Untitled from Anthology of Contemporary Engraving, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching with Aquatint on Rives paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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LUCIO DEL PEZZO b.1933 Untitled, 1961 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Collage with Etching on vellum paper 32 x 24 cm / 12.5 x 9.4 in

Schwartz organised only a few solo exhibitions since 1962. Lucio Del Pezzo, originally from Naples, moved to Milan in 1960. Although his paintings and assemblages are carefully designed, there is always the playful aspect to his art. He was among the founders of the neo-surrealist "Group 58" and has contributed to the avant-garde magazine “Documento Sud”. Over the years he participated in important partnerships, such as with Baj and Fontana, and exhibited alongside De Chirico, Carrà, Morandi and Sironi.

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LUCIO DEL PEZZO b.1933 Amore Folle, 2005 6 Original Hand Signed and Numbered etchings in colour with Collage on Arches Rives vellum paper 38 x 28 cm / 15 x 11 in

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MARIO PERSICO b.1930 Figure in the Night I (Untitled), 1960 Original Hand Signed and Dated White lead Drawing on Black paper 30.5 x 21.2 cm / 12 x 8.3 in

This is sort of robot is the main character of Mario Persico Word, an ironic figure, which communicates a great sense of order.

MARIO PERSICO b.1930 Figure in the Night II (Untitled), 1961 Original Hand Signed and Dated White lead Drawing on Black paper 30.5 x 21.2 cm / 12 x 8.3 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Christian Schad was a German painter, collagist, printmaker and photographer. He studied briefly and in 1913 began to make Expressionist woodcuts. From 1915 to 1920 he lived in Zurich and Geneva, where he was associated with the Dada movement. He continued creating woodcuts but also made reliefs, paintings and collages from newspaper cuttings.

At the same time he became interested in abstracting photography and using it in a more metaphoric way. In 1918, while living in Geneva, he created his first ‘schadographs', contact prints of collages and objects on photosensitive paper. These camera-less photographs reproduced the negative image of the textures placed on them, creating a new form of representation.

CHRISTIAN SCHAD 1894-1982 Babylon Analysis, 1918-19 Original Hand Signed and Titled woodcut on paper 23 x 15.8 cm / 9 x 6.2 in

CHRISTIAN Passions / Original Hand paper 11.5 x 11.5

SCHAD 1894-1982 Leide Schaften, 1915 Signed and Dated Etching on vellum cm / 4.5 x 4.5 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Hans Richter, polymath, painter, filmmaker, and writer was above all an artist of social import, and the force and meaning of his art was attained by his interaction with those around him.

His essential and unique contributions to modernism spanned its crucial trajectory from Expressionism through Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism and New American Cinema Movement.

Most of Richter's accomplishments came to fruition in creative encounters with artists and writers such as Hans Arp, Theo van Doesburg, El Lissitzky, Kasimir Malevich, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Fernand LĂŠger and Man Ray.

HANS RICHTER 1888-1975 Tete Dada, Variation 2, 1963 Original Hand Signed, Titled and Numbered Etching on vellum paper Plate Size: 14.8 x 11.2 cm / 5.9 x 4.3 in

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HANS RICHTER 1888-1975 Composition, 1963 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on Canson paper 23.5 x 18 cm / 9.2 x 7 in

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LUCIO FONTANA1899 - 1968 Untitled, 1962 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching with Aquatint on wove paper Plate Size: 11.5 x 14.5 cm / 4.5 x 5.7 in

Lucio Fontana was born in Argentina from Italian immigrants, but moved to Milan when he was a young child. Trained as a sculptor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, he became familiar with the art of Arturo Martini whose work proved influential in Fontana’s artistic beginnings.

During World War II, Fontana returned to Argentina, where he began formulating his theory on the concept of space. In 1947, he founded Spazialismo, or “Spatialism,” that he defined in several manifestos as the idea that art should include an element of energy, so that space can be seen in a dynamic way by the viewer, in a constant state of transition and tension.

Fontana was highly influential among the following generation of artists, who began to use installation mediums more aggressively to address the dynamics of space in environment and Land Art.

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LUCIO FONTANA1899 - 1968 The Magnetic Seven, 1968 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 35.5 x 23 cm / 13.9 x 9 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Giovanni Dova was an Italian painter. He studied at the Brera Academy in Milan under Carpi, Carrà and Funi. He joined the “Spazialismo Movement” led by Fontana and was one of those who signed the Spazialismo manifestos of 1948, 1951, 1952 and 1953. He became interested in Surrealism through the writings of Breton and the work of Ernst, Lam, Matta and Brauner.

GIANNI DOVA 1925-1991 Surrealistic Figure, 1958 Original Hand Signed Lithograph on Fabriano wove paper 52.3 x 36 cm / 20.6 x 14.2 in

- Gilden's Arts Gallery Daniel Spoerri is a Swiss sculptor, performance artist and writer of Romanian birth. In 1942 he fled with his family to Switzerland. Experiences in the theatre provided the background to the art that he began to produce after settling in Paris in 1959.

In 1960 Spoerri became a founder-member of Nouveau RÊalisme. In the same year he produced the first of his tableaux pièges (trap pictures) in which randomly ordered objects were glued on to the furniture and other supports on which they rested exactly as they were found. Displaying the resulting sculpture not on the floor but on the wall, so that the objects appeared to defy gravity, Spoerri turned his realist still-lifes into pictures.

DANIEL SPOERRI b.1930 La Medecine Operatoire Dessinee d'Apres Nature par N.H. Jacob, 1993 Collage of objects on old print 21 x 19 cm / 12.6 x 9.5 in

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RENE MAGRITTE Les Travaux d'Alexandre, 1962 Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etching on vellum paper 24 x 20 cm / 9.4 x 7.9 in