Melusine and the Great Transparents

Modern Art

1943

Kurt Seligmann
American, born Switzerland, 1900-1962

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Kurt Seligmann
Title: Melusine and the Great Transparents
Place: Switzerland (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1943
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed (?) and dated lower left: (?) 1943
Dimensions: 74.3 × 61 cm (29 1/4 × 24 in.)
Credit Line: Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection
Reference Number: 1981.823
Copyright: © 2018 Orange County Citizens Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

James Johnson Sweeny, Kurt Seligmann, exh. cat. (New York: D’Arcy Galleries, 1961), 11 (ill.).
Isabelle Dervaux, Surrealism USA, exh. cat. (Hatje Cantz, 2005), p. 138, pl. 90.
Gavin Parkinson, Futures of Surrealism: Myth, Science Fiction and Fantastic Art in France, 1936-1969. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 20, 21, fig. 4 (color ill.).
Tere Arcq, Jennifer Field, Salomon Grmiberg, and Erin O’Neil, Surrealsim in Mexico, exh. cat. (New York: Di Donna, 2019), 46, fig. 15 (color ill.).
Gražina Subelytė and Daniel Zamani, Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, exh. cat. (Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 2022), 190 (color ill.), 193, 194, 213, cat. 85 (color ill.), 259.

New York D’Arcy Galleries, Kurt Seligmann, Apr. 18-May 13, 1961, cat. 22.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Mary and Earle Ludgin Collection, Sept. 11-Oct. 31, 1982, no cat.
Madrid, Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, The Surrealists in Exile and the Origin of the New York School, no cat., Dec. 21, 1999–Feb. 27 2000; Strasbourg, Museum of Modern Art, May 12–Aug. 27, 2000.
New York, The National Academy of Design, Surrealism USA, Feb. 2-May 8, 2005, pl 90; Phoenix Art Museum, June 5-Sept. 25, 2005.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Surrealism: Communicating Vessels, no cat., May 28–Sept. 25, 2011.
Ithaca, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Surrealism and Magic, Aug. 30–Dec. 21, 2014; Boca Raton Museum of Art, Jan. 26–Apr. 5, 2015.
Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, Apr. 9–Sept. 26, 2022, cat 85; Potsdam, Museum Barberini, Oct. 22, 2022–Jan. 9, 2023.

The artist, New York; probably sold to Mary and Earle Ludgin, Hubbard Woods, IL, by 1981; their estate; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 23, 1981.

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