Dimensions: 65 x 50 cm; ed. 18/120
Signed: signed p.d.: Maryan, inscribed l.d.: 18 / 120 and watermark "BFK RIVES" and imprint " L'OEUVRE GRAVEE"; on the reverse signed and inscribed: Maryan, Composition II
Provenance
Ahrenberg family collection
Theodor "Teto" Ahrenberg (1912-1989) was a Swedish entrepreneur and visionary, and above all one of the most prominent art collectors of the 20th century. His passion, born in the post-war enthusiasm of the 1940s, evolved over time into a monumental enterprise, resulting in one of the most important and daring private panoramas of contemporary art in Europe. Over the course of four decades, Ahrenberg amassed more than six thousand works that documented not only the rapid changes in aesthetics, but also the vibrant, intimate fabric of his artistic relationships.
Ahrenberg's collection was a rare marriage of the already established masters with the most radical representatives of the emerging modern era. His holdings included works by pillars of modernism such as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Le Corbusier and Marc Chagall. But what defined the unique nature of his patronage was his boundless openness to artists who were unruly and seeking new forms of expression. Ahrenberg became a protector and friend of such pioneers as Lucio Fontana, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Arman and Robert Rauschenberg. Significantly, his circle of interest also included Polish artists Tadeusz Kantor, Marian Bogusz, Aleksander Kobzdej, Pinchas Burstein (Maryan), Henryk Stażewski and Jan Lebenstein. The selection testifies to his incredible collecting intuition and rare ability to spot outstanding phenomena outside the Western mainstream.
The year 1962 became a painful caesura in Ahrenberg's biography. As a result of a contentious tax dispute with the Swedish state, much of his first collection - which included priceless pre-war works - was confiscated and dispersed at auction. This traumatic experience prompted the collector to move with his family to the picturesque village of Chexbres on Lake Geneva. It was there, at the Atelier Le Rocher estate, that a new chapter of his business was born, in which the house became a studio and the studio became a home. Ahrenberg invited artists for long residencies, allowing them total creative freedom and funding their most daring projects. Ahrenberg's second collection thus became an intimate record of encounters and shared lives with the greatest personalities of the era, mapping the freshest and most current trends in art. Today, his name remains a symbol of patronage based on boundless trust, a testament to the belief that the role of a collector goes far beyond simply owning objects - it is to actively and passionately contribute to the history of art.
