(Berlin 1913 - 1985 Basel)

Gartengeist. 1971.

Wood and palm fibres on green painted base.

With the stamped monogram underneath the base: M.O.

57 x 15 x 18 cm.

Provenance:
- Elisabeth Kaufmann, Zurich.
- Private collection Zurich.
- Grisebach, Berlin, auction 28 November 2014, lot 534.
- Private collection Germany, acquired at the above auction.

Exhibitions:
- Solothurn 1974, Meret Oppenheim, Museum der Stadt Solothurn, 28 September - 10 November 1974 (with label underneath the base).
- Zurich 2001/02, Spielraum. Kunst und Kindlichkeit, Museum Coninx, 14 September 2001 - 24 February 2002.
- Bern 2006, Meret Oppenheim Retrospektive. Mit ganz enorm wenig viel, Kunstmuseum Bern, 2 June - 8 October 2006, p. 199 (with col. ill.).

Literature: Curiger, Bice/Bürgi, Dominique: Meret Oppenheim. Werkverzeichnis, Zurich 1982, p. 206, no. U172 (with ill.).

Surrealism often makes use of the combination of two fundamentally unrelated elements, thereby ironising their meanings. This can be seen for example in the famous iron with nails (Le Cadeau 1921) by Man Ray or the fur-covered cup (Déjeuner en fourrure 1936) by Meret Oppenheim. As in that now most cited work of the movement, the ingenious Surrealist again makes use of this trick in her late work. As the title implies, we have a garden gnome and fetish standing before us.