Komposition (Aquarium)

Seligmann explores dreamlike submarine worlds with his "diver's bell with vibrating sides". (André Breton)

This painting from a series with a subaquatic theme is a humorous presentation of a biomorphic creature that resembles an octopus. Its tentacles outline a rigorous space that is disturbed only by a red spatter. Steeped in Italian metaphysical painting, fascinated by psychoanalysis and inspired by his friends Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró, here the painter manifests the richness of his sources. Conceived shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1929, this work constitutes a premature synthesis of the movements he would subscribe to: Abstraction-Création in 1931 and Surrealism as of 1934.