A taste for the Avant-Garde : the collection of Pierre Ferrenbach
After a career in the pharmaceutical industry, Pierre Ferrenbach (born in 1938) turned to photography, capturing in black and white the landscapes of territories of “almost nothingness” during expeditions to the Sahara and the Arctic. Gradually, he shifted his focus to the photographic medium itself, developing a new and highly personal relationship with analogue film, treating this seemingly “ordinary” industrial product in its raw state as a material in its own right.
It was through Galerie Jade that Ferrenbach developed a taste for contemporary and avant-garde art. He learned greatly through his contact with Edouard Jaeglé and Karine Graff. Thanks to them, he acquired works by Pierre Soulages and Robert Delaunay.
The collection offers a panorama ranging from modern art, with two drawings by Sonia Delaunay (Composition abstraite, 1973, est. €15,000–€25,000), to contemporary art. It includes around ten photographs by Pierre Ferrenbach, along with other works composed of strips of photographic film, which were exhibited at Art Basel alongside works by other artists represented by Galerie Jade.
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Among the most sought-after artists, the collection features a lithograph by Hans Hartung, two drawings by Survage (La maison derrière les arbres, est. €200–€300), a sculpture of a dancing couple by Niki de Saint Phalle (est. €10,000–€15,000), and a painting by Gérard Schneider, Opus 174 B, 1953 (est. €20,000–€30,000).
Pierre Ferrenbach also collected more contemporary pieces, including sculptures and installations that echo his career in industry, such as Simulateur by the Collectif BP, 1993 (est. €500–€1,000), Circum Navigation by Denis Pondruel, 1988 (est. €500–€1,000), and a monumental work by Anne and Patrick Poirier, which will be presented together with its preparatory drawings (est. €1,000–€2,000).
