The record-breaking £73 million sale of Karpidas in London last autumn was proof that the Surrealism craze is still going strong. Now, one of the best-selling clothes during the May tent week is the collection of the Milan-born artist Enrico Donati, “the last Surrealist.” Among the most valuable single-owner collections of the season, his cache is expected to generate $50-80 million—a figure partially buoyed by the story of a fascinating person almost inseparable from the movement itself.
Donati’s approach to art was remarkably meandering. After studying economics in Pavia and music in Milan, he turned to painting later in life, a decision that took him first to Paris and, after the outbreak of war, to New York. There, he entered Surrealist circles, forming close relationships with the leading émigré artists of the era, including André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. His art collection emerged from this relationship, which resulted in an impressive group of artworks acquired directly from the artists. Many have never been seen or exhibited, as Donati’s attachment to them was not merely aesthetic but personal.
The leading group is Picasso Harlequin (Bust)which will be the subject of the Sootho Modern Day Auction on May 19. It was painted in 1909, just a few years later. Les Demoiselles d’Avignonit has an estimate of more than 40 million dollars. The subject is one of Picasso’s favorite recurring motifs—the harlequin—transformed here through a radical Cubist lens into a different, earthy composition. Donati came across the work at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris and was immediately impressed. Soon after, he visited the Galerie Louise Leiris, where he met Picasso’s legendary dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and asked him about the price. In response, Kahnweiler asked Donati how much money he had, and he quickly suggested that the price was what Donati had in his pockets. It remained in the artist’s collection for over 60 years.
Another highly anticipated highlight is Kandinsky’s Deep Red (Estimate: $12-18 million), painted at the height of his Bauhaus period in June 1925. It is one of the last paintings Kandinsky produced that year, as his focus increasingly shifted to teaching and his mature art theory. Donati, who had studied music, must have responded quickly to the idea of music that moves the song. Notably, this canvas comes to auction shortly after Kandinsky Le rond rouge (The Red Circle)dated 1939, sold for £12,545,000 ($16.73 million) at Christie’s London March Evening Sale, having been on long-term loan to the Courtauld Gallery from 2002 to 2018.
Also on the block is Alexander Calder’s mobile, It has no title (1950), which Donati acquired in exchange for one of his paintings, now estimated at $700,000-$1 million. It’s Yves Tanguy, another close friend of Donati Aux agues le jourgifted directly by the artist and estimated at $800,000-$1.2 million. An otherworldly moonscape, it dissolves all the temporal and spatial divisions that inform the mystery of Tanguy’s work, with a melancholy atmosphere that carries a melancholic undercurrent of exile and isolation. When he painted it, Tanguy had just settled with Kay Sage at Town Farm in Woodbury, Connecticut, which had become a meeting place for avant-garde artists, including Donati. Other works in the collection are examples of his direct interaction with his peers, among themselves Prière de toucher (cover of “Le Surréalisme en 1947”), created with Marcel Duchamp and estimated at $15,000-25,000.
Donati continued to expand the collection with the help of his wife, Adele Schmidt, who brought her artistic training and keen vision to their shared pursuit. Schmidt built a successful career in New York as a designer and later worked as creative director at the French perfume house Houbigant. He was also an active philanthropist and animal rights advocate, serving on several boards.
In addition to the works of his contemporaries, Donati—like many Surrealists—was fascinated by so-called “creative” art, especially African masks. Among the items in his collection is a 19th-century shaman’s mask made by a Yup’ik or Inupiaq artist from Alaska. Believed to have served as a vehicle to connect the physical and spiritual worlds, it is expected to fetch $300,000-500,000. Another mask, with horns, of a Bété or Guro artist from Côte d’Ivoire, also from the 19th century, has an estimate of $100,000-150,000. Both will be offered at the Art of Africa, Oceania and Americas sale on June 18.
Unlike some of his peers, Donati maintained a lifelong commitment to Surrealist principles. Even as the movement waned and many artists turned to abstraction or other forms of expression, he continued to work within the Surrealist lexicon until his death. A defining feature of his practice was his exploration of unusual materials, particularly sand, which he used to create textured, fossil-like surfaces that evoked forms and constellations, including worlds both small and large.
Donati participated in the landmark 1947 “International Surrealist Exhibition” in Paris, organized by André Breton and Marcel Duchamp and widely considered the last major exhibition of the Surrealist group. In New York, his work was exhibited at the influential Julien Levy Gallery, and today it is held in major institutions including MoMA and the Guggenheim.
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