Turning Point of Thirst

Modern Art

1934

Victor Brauner
Romanian, 1903–1966

Upon settling in Paris in 1930, Victor Brauner established a deep friendship with the artist Yves Tanguy, who introduced him to the Surrealist circle. Three years later, Brauner joined the group with the support of Tanguy, and his 1934 solo show at the Galerie Pierre, for which André Breton wrote the catalogue introduction, solidified his position. Like other Surrealists of the period, such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, Brauner was inspired by dreams, the unconscious, and mysticism, as well as diverse religions and ancient mythologies. Such influences are present in the artist’s Turning Point of Thirst, one of the works included in his 1934 exhibition. Of this work, Brauner wrote that “representing this personage in withered tatters expresses unremitting solitude and should pound the senses.”

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Victor Brauner
Title: Turning Point of Thirst
Place: Romania (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1934
Medium: Oil on canvas with painted frame
Inscriptions: Signed in image, l.r.: "VICTOR BRAUNER/1934"
Dimensions: 50.5 × 59 cm (19 7/8 × 23 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Promised gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.; purchased with funds provided by Richard Gray; Alyce and Edwin De Costa and the Walter E. Heller Foundation
Reference Number: 1992.652
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

William Stanley Rubin, Dada and Surrealist Art (New York, 1968), pp. 309-310, no. 313.
Didier Semin, Victor Brauner (Paris, 1990), pp. 43-45, 59 (ill.).
James Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture (Chicago, 1996), p. 68 (ill.).

Paris, Galerie Pierre, Exposition Victor Brauner, December 7–25, 1934, cat. 15.
Chicago, Richard Feigen Gallery, Victor Brauner: Paintings from 1932-1958, April 26–June 13, 1959, n.p. (ill.), cat. 2, as Pivot de la soif (Pivot of Thirst).
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections, December 1, 1984–January 27, 1985, pp. 121-2 (ill), pl. 34.

The artist to Richard Feigen, Chicago, 1958 to 1959 [letter of April 12, 2002 from Jeff Bailey of Richard Feigen and Co., in curatorial file]; sold to Claire B. Zeisler (formerly Claire Florsheim),, Chicago, 1959 to 1991 [as per November 16, 1992 committee meeting justification by Charles F. Stuckey, in curatorial file]; probably sold to Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, by 1992; sold to the Art Institute, 1992.

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