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At Christie’s, September is Surreal! Discover Automatism & Dreams by Audrey Guttman

At Christie’s, September is Surreal! Discover Automatism & Dreams by Audrey Guttman July 22, 2024Art Events, Paris0 Comments

Carte blanche to Audrey Guttman
from September 12 to October 2, 2024

Paris – Christie’s is delighted to join the program of celebrations for the Centenary of Surrealism led by the Centre Pompidou, which will devote its major autumn exhibition to the subject. The entire city of Paris will be celebrating the centenary of Surrealism, a major 20th-century movement whose birth, on October 15 1924, coincided with the publication of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto. Surrealism is not just an artistic movement but also a revolutionary one, seeking to transform society by liberating the human mind.
Breton envisions a world where the imagination is free from the constraints of reality, leading to greater personal and social freedom. The manifesto is influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud, particularly his work on psychoanalysis and the unconscious. Breton emphasizes the importance of dreams, automatic writing, and the irrational in unlocking creative potential.

For the past 23 years, Christie’s has organized an annual sale devoted exclusively to Surrealist art. In 2024, the success of the sale was once again punctuated by new records for the movement’s artists.

A hundred years later, this artistic movement continues more than ever to captivate minds and influence contemporary art and culture. A sign that the intellectual and artistic influence of Surrealism has not waned, the movement continues to strongly inspire today’s artists. For the occasion, and in keeping with its commitment to young artists, Christie’s will be entrusting the keys to its exhibition rooms to visual artist and poet Audrey Guttman.
From September 12 to October 2, she will design and stage an exhibition, proposing an intimate conversation between emblematic works of Surrealism and her own creations.

Audrey Guttman – Photo : Céleste Leeuwenburg

In the maze of creation, Audrey Guttman summons automatism and dreams for an exhibition conceived as a dreamlike journey through words and images. A unique installation pays homage to the Surrealist workshop. It is inspired by the artist’s studio and André Breton’s studio apartment at 42 rue Fontaine, described by Julien Gracq as “a refuge from all the machinations of the world”. Using the vocabulary of collage, assemblage and poetry, Audrey Guttman will evoke the multiple “Images du labyrinthe” (Roger Caillois) that litter her artistic journey.

For Audrey Guttman, the studio is a hotbed of poetic energy where art and thought meet to transform reality. The irreverent interplay of images and words is at the heart of her art and the Surrealist constellation. This exhibition is a true declaration of love for Surrealism. It includes works by Audrey Guttman as well as iconic pieces by Surrealist artists, including drawings, objects, manuscripts, sculptures and books from private collections, to celebrate and tell the story of creation itself, in all its labyrinthine, arborescent and inexhaustible dimensions, assigning it no limits other than those of the exhibition walls.

“What is surrealism?

(…) It’s the milk of dreams from which I drink, the color of the umbrella that shelters me, the Borgesian vertigo from which I create. That’s the enigma. How do I approach it? All around the word, the beautiful, serious name of Surrealism, there are bushy gardens with openings into which to wriggle. (…) At the heart of the labyrinth – the studio. An inventoried or invented space, it’s the cache where these great brewers of words and images tapped into the fertile wave, forming hilarious ricochets that shudder all the way to us.”

Audrey Guttman

Some of these iconic works are on loan, while others will be presented at the private sale.
Audrey Guttman lives and works between Paris and Brussels. She is represented by Galerie Ketabi Bourdet in Paris and Galerie Mighela Shama in Geneva.

Christie’s “Cartes Blanches”
For nearly five years, Christie’s France, under the leadership of its President Cécile Verdier, has been opening up to all audiences by offering events fully connected to the Parisian art scene. Thus, in January 2023, with the exhibition Reflecting on Restitution, Raphaël Denis was invited to explore the question of spoliations of works of art. In September, it was the turn of Boys Band, a carte blanche given to My-Lan Hoang-Thuy, organized in parallel with the artist’s very first exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. In January 2024, Studio Ymer&Malta showcased its design creations in the heart of this district, which today houses some of the world’s leading galleries. More recently, in April, the latest creations by designer Nicolas Lefebvre were presented in the Christie’s showrooms.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Images du Labyrinthe. L’atelier surréaliste
Private sale exhibition from September 12 to October 2, 2024
Christie’s France – 9 avenue Matignon, Paris 8e

Tags: André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, Art exhibition Paris, Centenary of Surrealism, Centre Pompidou, Galerie Ketabi Bourdet in Paris, Galerie Mighela Shama in Geneva., poetic energy, Surrealist art, visual artist and poet Audrey Guttman, What We Adore Magazine