Max Walter Svanberg 1961 Original Surrealist Painting Landscape Bristlecone Pine

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This is a wonderful original surrealist mountain landscape painting by Max Walter Svanberg. Dated 1961 and signed Max Walters. This … Read more This is a wonderful original surrealist mountain landscape painting by Max Walter Svanberg. Dated 1961 and signed Max Walters. This is an unusual painting for Svanberg. While it is dissimilar to his usual highly stylistic surrealist works it does present a surreal take on an alpine landscape. It appears that the subject is a bristlecone pine, one of the longest lived trees in the world. Bristlecone pines live thousands of years but lack greenery so they appear to be dead. The sharp contrast in focus gives this a tension that has a slightly surreal quality. The subject also suggests surreal themes of the passage of time and the tension between life and death.


Framed size 17.5" x 21.5" x 1.6"d, canvas size "14 x 18".

It appears that this was painted during or following a trip to the United States as the canvas board is American made. Svanberg was in the famous 1960 International Surrealist Exhibition at D'Arcy Galleries in New York. This plausibly places him in the United States either at the date of 1961 or having started this in 1960 and finished in 1961, or simply painted on a canvas board acquired in or from the United States. I have not confirmed if he was in the United States at this time. Many references for Svanberg appear in the Andre Breton archives relating to this exhibition. Most are in French and I have not translated and read them. They are easily accessible online. It's worth consulting to establish if he was at the exhibition or if this work is described anywhere.

Some of the departure in stylistic qualities in this work may have been inspired by fellow surrealists in the exhibition as the bristlecone pine is painted in a manner similar to treatments of trees in works by fellow surrealists in this exhibition. The motif of bare tortured looking trees appears in numerous surrealist paintings; even in some of Svanberg's earlier works on paper. While this style is not typical for Svanberg, earlier realist paintings and earlier surrealist pencil drawings show the capacity for this manner of draughtsmanship. The contrast in color and focus is brilliant and adds so much to this work. The strange little bits of color scattered around the ground have an odd quality that relates more to the way in which he handles paint in typical works. The back of the reads 66 in ink (possibly 99 but it looks more like upside down 66). Numerous letters and documents in the Andre Breton archives cite Svanberg in the aforementioned 1960 International Surrealist Exhibition and also for 1965-1966 L'Écart absolu exhibition in la galerie L'Œil. A catalog of the exhibition shows a work by Svanberg in his typical style. It's unclear if this work was also a part of that exhibition but it's plausible that it either refers to an exhibition date or the date that this was framed.

The surface is a canvas board from "National Card Mat & Board Co Chicago Los Angeles". The frame details include a date of January 10 and the name "Underwood", indicating that this was likely owned and had professionally framed by or for someone with that surname. It's also possibly a title or even the name for the frame moulding variety. The frame is an appropriate period frame.

Some of the letters in the signature are a deviation from his typical lowercase letters, however I have observed variations among several known works where the case is uppercase instead; either partially or entirely . It appears that his intention was to capitalize all letters. For example most but not all M in Max are lowercase as are all letters, the l and T are often formed differently (without a kick at the bottom) yet some examples have l and t formed as in this signature. It should be noted that this came from a collection that also included a small framed commercial print reproduction of one of Svanberg's more typical works.
Condition of the painting is excellent. Frame has some moderate wear and loss to the finish. 
The 1959-1960 International Surrealist Exhibition catalog citations include:
Exposition inteRnatiOnale du Surréalisme 1959-1960
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Robert Benayoun, Vincent Bounoure, André Breton, Daniel Cordier, Marcel Duchamp, Alain Joubert, Joyce Mansour, Mimi Parent, Octavio Paz, André Pieyre de Mandiargues
Jean ou Hans Arp, Enrico Baj, Jean-Louis Bédouin, Hans Bellmer, Robert Benayoun, Jean Benoît, Bona Tibertelli de Pisis, dite Bona, Victor Brauner, Elisa Claro Breton, André Breton, Jacques Brunius, Agustín Cárdenas, Leonora Carrington, Bill Copley, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí, Adrien Dax, Giorgio De Chirico, Guy Doumayrou, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Elléouët, Max Ernst, P.-A. Gette, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Arshile Gorky, Simon Hantaï, Jindrich Heisler, Jacques Hérold, Hiquily, Radovan Ivsic, Jasper Johns, Alain Joubert, Horst-Egon Kalinowski, Robert Lagarde, Yves Laloy, Wifredo Lam, Jacques Le Maréchal, René Magritte, Manina, Joyce Mansour, Maria Martins, dite Maria, Alberto Martini, André Masson, Roberto Echauren Matta, Édouard-Léon-Théodore Mesens, Joan Miró, Pierre Molinier, Nevelsson, Richard Oelze, Meret Oppenheim, Wolfgang Paalen, Mimi Parent, Benjamin Péret, Benjamin Péret, Francis Picabia, José Pierre, Robert Rauschenberg, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Jean-Claude Silbermann, Jindrich Styrsky, Max Walter Svanberg, Luis E. Tabara, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Marie Cerminova, dite Toyen, Clovis Trouille, Roger Van Hecke, Marianne Van Hirtum, Monique Watteau, Unica Zürn. See less