Katia Sowels // Une cartographie des réseaux du surréalisme dans les galeries de l’Allemagne d’après-guerre : itinéraire des œuvres d’Edgar Jené (années 1950)
In a letter dated February 15, 1959, Simone Kahn thanked Otto Stangl for his keen interest in the work of Edgar Jené, "one of the best artists of our time." This research project revisits the transnational itinerary of Jéné’s work between Paris and West Germany, after the war, from the perspective of dealers and collectors. More broadly, the project looks at surrealism’s networks of circulation on both sides of the border, by cross-checking: exchanges between the Furstenberg Gallery in France and German galleries (1954-65); exhibition catalogues to which Jené specifically contributed; and, generally, the archives of the galleries which exhibited surrealist artists in Germany at the time. This research responds to recent scholarship reevaluating the underestimated history of surrealism in Germany, based on collaborations between artists, publications and institutional events dedicated to the movement in the 1950s-60s. Through the lens of the art market, the project aims to question: the relative success of the reception of surrealism in West Germany at the time of its global dissemination, commercialisation and institutionalisation; surrealism’s possible evolution, within the dialogue between older and newer generations, as well as within the cultural context of Franco-German reconciliation; and lastly surrealism’s possible impact on young artists, previously deprived of access to its works.