Le Cabinet Surréaliste de Geneviéve et Jean-Paul Kahn

Assembled over the decades, the collection brings together paintings, works on paper, and sculptures, all selected with the utmost rigor for the intrinsic quality of their composition and their historical importance.

The Geneviève and Jean-Paul Kahn «Mille nuits de rêve» library, dispersed in six auctions over the past five years, has provided surrealist enthusiasts with long-hidden treasures. Jean-Paul Kahn, a forerunner in many of his choices, experienced this «amour fou», this «trajectoire du rêve» (dream trajectory) with Geneviève, a journey where books, objects, drawings, collages, photography and paintings brought about the great «surrealist revolution», through a cabinet of curiosities featuring Marcel Duchamp, Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, Eileen Agar and many others. Artworks and art objects in conversation under the feminine gazes of surrealist women, whom both collected very early on. Similarly to the «Mille nuits de rêve», this surrealistic cabinet – long kept from public view – will be offered on June 5, for the pleasure of enthusiasts and according to the owners’ wishes.

Bringing together a large number of international artists from Europe, the United States, Latin America and the Dominican Republic, this collection reflects the singular spirit of a surrealist ensemble with its literary ramifications, from exquisite corpses to objects echoing the very feminine accent dear to Geneviève and Jean-Paul Kahn.

Among the lots presented in this sale, you will discover one of the most iconic images of surrealism, Marcel Duchamp’s famous L.H.O.O.Q. Mona Lisa, an emblematic composition by Dorothea Tanning in praise of movement, a sculpture box by American artist Joseph Cornell, or an extraordinary surrealist drawing by Jackson Pollock.

This collection simultaneously highlights the natural link between the Surrealist movement and American Pop Art, with works by major pop artists: two self-portraits by Andy Warhol, a Roy Lichtenstein hot dog, an emblematic composition by Robert Indiana and a sculpture-object by Claes Oldenburg.

About PIASA

Founded in Paris in 1996, the PIASA auction house today embraces the creations of the 20th and 21st centuries, from modern and contemporary art to design, from decorative arts to jewelry.

Located in an 18th-century building on rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, in the heart of Paris’s right bank golden triangle, PIASA organizes its sales and exhibitions in this intimate setting, in collaboration with leading interior designers.

Renowned in France and internationally for its singular eye, which focuses above all on the aesthetic strength of a work or object, PIASA also distinguishes itself by regularly publishing richly documented catalogs, which are highly prized and a true record of the company’s activity.

For more information, please visit https://www.piasa.fr/en/future-auctions.