Ceri Richards (British, 1903-1971) The Coffee Pot signed 'Ceri Richards' (lower centre) and further signed 'Ceri Richards' (verso) oil on canvas 90.2 x 50.2 cm. (35 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.) Painted circa 1936-37 Fußnoten Provenance Private Collection, Netherlands The Coffee Pot was almost certainly painted circa 1936-37, a period of intense and diverse experimentation in Richards's work. The paintings of this period (and up to 1939) show an acute awareness of Surrealism, intensified by Richards's experiences at the 1936 Surrealist International Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries and his intensive reading of Surrealist literature during this period (see Mel Gooding Ceri Richards Cameron & Hollis, Dumfriesshire, p.42). In August 1937 he visited with Frances, his wife, the International Exposition in Paris, and the concurrent Petit Palais exhibition Les Maitres de l'Art Independent. He was thus steeped in Surrealist and post-Cubist French art (he was an avid subscriber - via Zwemmer's Bookshop - of the major avant-garde French publications, including Minotaur) and his painting at this time can be seen as assimilating this experience to the development of a style and manner of his own in the treatment of themes and motives that were an international currency at this time. The Coffee Pot is a formal exercise in post-Cubist still life, while at the same time incorporating a quasi-Surrealist symbolic eroticism. It must be remembered that Richards was still employed by day (at the advertising agencies London Press Exchange, and W.H. Hobson) and painting by night and at weekends: every painting had to serve the purpose of extending his technical and stylistic expertise, and his knowledge of what painting could achieve. As an enthusiastic fellow-traveller of the Surrealists he was willingly and creatively open to the promptings of the unconscious in his work, happy to admit mystery and enigma, and untroubled by inconsistencies of style or by any requirement of 'fine finish'. We are grateful to Mel Gooding for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Ceri Richards (British, 1903-1971) The Coffee Pot signed 'Ceri Richards' (lower centre) and further signed 'Ceri Richards' (verso) oil on canvas 90.2 x 50.2 cm. (35 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.) Painted circa 1936-37 Fußnoten Provenance Private Collection, Netherlands The Coffee Pot was almost certainly painted circa 1936-37, a period of intense and diverse experimentation in Richards's work. The paintings of this period (and up to 1939) show an acute awareness of Surrealism, intensified by Richards's experiences at the 1936 Surrealist International Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries and his intensive reading of Surrealist literature during this period (see Mel Gooding Ceri Richards Cameron & Hollis, Dumfriesshire, p.42). In August 1937 he visited with Frances, his wife, the International Exposition in Paris, and the concurrent Petit Palais exhibition Les Maitres de l'Art Independent. He was thus steeped in Surrealist and post-Cubist French art (he was an avid subscriber - via Zwemmer's Bookshop - of the major avant-garde French publications, including Minotaur) and his painting at this time can be seen as assimilating this experience to the development of a style and manner of his own in the treatment of themes and motives that were an international currency at this time. The Coffee Pot is a formal exercise in post-Cubist still life, while at the same time incorporating a quasi-Surrealist symbolic eroticism. It must be remembered that Richards was still employed by day (at the advertising agencies London Press Exchange, and W.H. Hobson) and painting by night and at weekends: every painting had to serve the purpose of extending his technical and stylistic expertise, and his knowledge of what painting could achieve. As an enthusiastic fellow-traveller of the Surrealists he was willingly and creatively open to the promptings of the unconscious in his work, happy to admit mystery and enigma, and untroubled by inconsistencies of style or by any requirement of 'fine finish'. We are grateful to Mel Gooding for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
