拍品专文
The past has given a physiognomy to the European
landscape, where civilizations lie buried under
every acre. I was soon aware that the American
landscape has opposite features. In America nature
does not bear man's imprint. You may travel many
miles through unsettled land, unchanged by the
young civilization. This nature is virginal or
indifferent, untouched by the ghosts of past cultures.
For the Europeans this is a novelty and an attraction,
which in my case found its expression in a series of
geological or 'cyclonic' scenes. I have abandoned this,
not because my interest is slackening, but for the
prevailing interest of my work, which is man.
(K. Seligmann, in "Eleven Europeans in America,"
The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, New York, 1946,
vol. XIII, nos. 4-5, pp. 11-12)
The novel features of the American landscape, especially in the Far West, fascinated many of the European artists in exile. In the early 1940s Seligmann painted a series of landscapes in which a tornado-like or cyclonic shapes dominate the scene. These phenomena seem to be manifestations of tremendous concentrations of energy, which can only be rendered visible by "wrapping" them in cloth. Other enigmatic bandaged shapes may contain the mummy-like remains of dead civilizations, or new unidentifiable life-forms about to emerge.
landscape, where civilizations lie buried under
every acre. I was soon aware that the American
landscape has opposite features. In America nature
does not bear man's imprint. You may travel many
miles through unsettled land, unchanged by the
young civilization. This nature is virginal or
indifferent, untouched by the ghosts of past cultures.
For the Europeans this is a novelty and an attraction,
which in my case found its expression in a series of
geological or 'cyclonic' scenes. I have abandoned this,
not because my interest is slackening, but for the
prevailing interest of my work, which is man.
(K. Seligmann, in "Eleven Europeans in America,"
The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, New York, 1946,
vol. XIII, nos. 4-5, pp. 11-12)
The novel features of the American landscape, especially in the Far West, fascinated many of the European artists in exile. In the early 1940s Seligmann painted a series of landscapes in which a tornado-like or cyclonic shapes dominate the scene. These phenomena seem to be manifestations of tremendous concentrations of energy, which can only be rendered visible by "wrapping" them in cloth. Other enigmatic bandaged shapes may contain the mummy-like remains of dead civilizations, or new unidentifiable life-forms about to emerge.