ANDRÉ VERLON* (Zurich 1917 - 1994 Vienna) Masks, around 1975 oil/canvas 112.5 x 38.4 cm ESTIMATE € 200 - € 400 STARTING PRICE € 200 André Verlon, born Willi Verkauf, was an Austrian artist from the 20th century, publisher and publicist. His father was a Jewish textile technician and bookseller. He completed an apprenticeship as a landscape gardener and emigrated to Palestine with his family in 1933. He worked as a gardener until 1938 and then made a living as a writer, bookseller, publisher, art dealer and artist. He was also director of the KPÖ party publisher Globus and published magazines such as The Diary, Heritage and Future and The Book Review. In 1942 he was a co-founder of the exile organisation Free Austrian Movement in Palestine. In 1946 Verkauf returned to Vienna, where he published the magazine Erbe und Zukunft until 1948. In 1958, Verkauf took the name André Verlon and devoted himself exclusively to art. His paintings show influences from Umberto Boccioni's Futurist collages, the Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich, "papier collés" of the Cubism and John Heartfield's photomontages. Verlon dealt with Dadaism and maintained contacts with Jean Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Marcel Janko and Richard Hulsenbec. He is regarded as the inventor of montage painting; his pictures are political and experimental in design. In 1961 his works were shown alongside works by Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Meret Oppenheim in the exhibition The Art of Assemblage at MoMA in New York. From 1961 to 1971 he lived in Paris, then back in Vienna. Verlon donated the Willy and Helga Verkauf-Verlon Prize for anti-fascist Austrian journalism, which is awarded by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance. From 1987 he was also chairman of the Theodor Kramer Society, which in turn awards the Theodor Kramer Prize. He was also a member of the PEN Club and recipient of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Liberation of Austria. Further artists and styles: Dadaism, DADA, Marcel Janco, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Hans Richter, Richard Huelsenbeck, Andre Breton, Kasimir Malewitsch, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Otto Dix, Francis Picabia, George Grosz, Man Ray, Sophie Taeuber-Arp PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and, the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.