European Abstraction 1952

ARP BLOC

EUROPEAN ABSTRACTION 1952

BOZZOLINI CHAPOVAL DELAUNAY DEL MARLE DE STAEL DEWASNE DOMÉLA GORIN HERBIN LANSKOY LEPPIEN MAGNELLI MORTENSEN PILLET POLIAKOFF

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RETH VASARELY

EUROPEAN ABSTRACTION 1952 We are delighted to present

these prints by a cross section of leading European artists

working with Abstraction in the

early 1950s. The prints were

published in Paris in 1952 and

printed on wove paper. They

were realised using the handcoloured pochoir process by Atelier Renson Fils.

Paper size is 23.5 x 20 cm.

Image sizes are approx

21 x 18 cm.

Because the vibrant colours

have all been applied by hand

using various brushes and

brushing techniques, these have

all the feel of original paintings.

TO ORDER PHONE 01572 821424

goldmarkart.com prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

| 1

JEAN ARP ÂŁ645

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Arp, a collage artist, engraver, sculptor

but was involved with several major

but around 1908 his family moved to

he helped with the formation of the Dada

and draughtsman, was born in Strasbourg

Weggis in Switzerland and it was there

that Arp completed his first abstract

compositions and learned the art of

modelling. He was particularly associated

with Dadaism and Surrealism.

Arp spent much of his life in Switzerland

developments in modern art. For example Gallery in 1917 and two years later in setting up the Cologne branch of the

Dada group. In later life he received

numerous awards and prizes including the French Grand Prix National des Arts, the

Pittsburgh Carnegie Prize and the German Order of Merit.

2 | POCHOIR

ALBERTO MAGNELLI £395

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Although born in Florence in 1888,

Marinetti asked him to join the movement

and worked as a painter, collage artist

met leading artists such as Léger, Picasso,

Magnelli was active in France from 1931

and engraver. Largely a self-taught artist,

he initially trained himself by viewing

renaissance art in local museums,

particularly Piero della Francesca.

However by 1913 he was associating with

leading contemporary Futurist artists

including Boccioni and Cara but although

he refused. He visited Paris in 1914 and

Matisse and Gris but he only settled there

seventeen years later. He exhibited with the New Realties Group in Paris in 1939 and post war at the Venice Biennale

(1950 & 1960) and the São Paulo Biennale (1953).

| 3

ANDRÉ BLOC £445

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Algerian born André Bloc was an

d’Aujourd’hui. He developed friendships

and illustrator and as such was

Vasarely and through them he became

architect, sculptor, painter, screen printer

with artists such as Magnelli, Poliakoff and

passionately interested in the integration

interested in abstract art. He exhibited

Corbusier and Auguste Perret and he

Nouvelles and held solo shows of abstract

of the arts. He was a friend of Le founded the influential journal

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui which he

edited until his death in 1966. In 1949 he

also founded a magazine entitled Art

regularly at the Salon des Réalités

works in Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Rome,

Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Bloc died in an accident in New Delhi in 1966.

4 | POCHOIR

SILVANO BOZZOLINI ÂŁ395

Born in Fiesole, Tuscany in 1911, Bozzolini was active mainly in France as a painter, collage artist, woodcut artist and illustrator. He also created designs for stained glass and mosaics. He studied in Rome, Milan and Florence and then, after active war service, settled in Paris in 1947.

There he became friendly with artists such as Vasarely, Arp, Poliakoff and Sonia Delaunay and thus joined a circle of painters who were to become the second generation of abstractionists. At this time

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his abstract work increasingly involved geometrical curves which went against the prevailing trend of straight lines and angles. In 1964-65 he created a series of 24 stained glass windows entitled Celestial Jerusalem for a church at Boust in France.

| 5

FÉLIX AIMÉ DEL MARLE £445

Born in 1889, del Marle studied at art schools in Valenciennes and Lille before moving to Paris in 1912 where he shared a studio with Gino Severini. He sent letters and drawings to Marinetti and Apollinaire considered him to be the first complete French Futurist. After the Great War he made satirical drawings in the style of Grosz and Dix and also introduced photocollage into his work similar to some of the Dadaists.

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During World War II he developed a Surrealist style but post war del Marle returned to Abstraction and exhibited with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. In 1951 he founded the group Espace (Space).

Since his death in 1952 there have been several retrospectives of his work.

6 | POCHOIR

JEAN DEWASNE £445

French born Dewasne was a painter, sculptor and lithographer who created his first abstract paintings around 1942. By 1947 he was working with a range of new materials such as metal, plywood, cold enamel and lacquer applied with a brush.

Three years later he was co-founder of The Abstract Art Studio which ran courses in ‘painting technology’ and around the same time he began making his antisculptures using pieces from cars and racing cycles.

Buy Now Dewasne participated in several international collective exhibitions and also held solo shows in Brussels, Copenhagen and Milan. He was awarded the Kandinsky Prize in 1946 and was a founder member of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. In 1968 an entire room was devoted to his work at the Venice Biennale.

| 7

SONIA DELAUNAY £645

Born Sonia Terk in 1885 into an impoverished Jewish family in Ukraine, Delaunay was orphaned in early childhood and adopted by a wealthy uncle. In 1905 she settled permanently in Paris and met several major artists including Robert Delaunay whom she married in 1910. She developed her diverse talents as a painter, decorative artist, poster artist and fashion designer.

Delaunay was a fervent supporter of abstract art and in 1939 was a co-

Buy Now organiser of the first important Parisian exhibition of abstract art entitled the Groupe des Réalités Nouvelles. In 1985 an exhibition was held to mark the centenary of Sonia and Robert’s births at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris and there have been several retrospective shows of her work in recent years.

8 | POCHOIR

AUGUSTE HERBIN £445

Herbin moved to Paris in 1903 and his art steadily began to free itself from representation. From around 1912 he was one of the first artists in France to move towards pure Abstraction and he assimilated several of the ideas of Kandinsky. Herbin believed that the emotional perception of shapes and colours passed through a synaesthetic phase which associates specific shapes and colours with precise sensations. He eventually presented his ideas in a book

Buy Now entitled L’Art Non Figuratif Non Objectif (1949).

Herbin was one of the founders of the influential Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1946. He held many solo shows from 1914 onwards and since his death in 1960 his work has featured in most of the retrospective exhibitions relating to the rise of Abstraction in European art.

| 9

CÉSAR DOMÉLA £395

Born in Amsterdam in 1900 Doméla experimented with various artistic styles during his early years. Around 1924-25 he worked with Mondrian and Van Doesburg and became the youngest member of the De Stijl Group. From 1926–33 he worked in Berlin and whilst there became a member of the ‘Abstracts of Hanover’ and forged links with the Bauhaus and Kandinsky. Moving to Paris in 1933 Doméla developed his interest in Abstraction by joining the group

Buy Now Abstraction–Création and, in 1939, participating in the seminal exhibition New Realities which was devoted solely to abstract art. In 1947 he exhibited at the Galerie Denise René in a show devoted solely to Geometric Abstraction. Doméla was a painter, sculptor, engraver and photomontage artist, he died in Paris in 1992.

10 | POCHOIR

JEAN GORIN £445

Gorin was a French painter and sculptor who taught in academic institutions for many years until, in 1932, he visited Russia where he saw and became influenced by the work of Malevich and other Constructivists.

Gorin read an article by Mondrian which finally decided him to pursue Abstraction in his art. He began corresponding with Mondrian and closely followed the latter’s precepts in his painting. Gorin showed at

Buy Now the avant-garde Art Abstrait (1937) and Réalités Nouvelles (1939) exhibitions and continued to contribute to important Constructivist shows. It was only in 1957 that he held his first solo show in Paris, the first of several in different places. In 1965 a retrospective of his entire output was held in Nantes.

| 11

AUGUSTE HERBIN £445

Herbin moved to Paris in 1903 and his art steadily began to free itself from representation. From around 1912 he was one of the first artists in France to move towards pure Abstraction and he assimilated several of the ideas of Kandinsky. Herbin believed that the emotional perception of shapes and colours passed through a synaesthetic phase which associates specific shapes and colours with precise sensations. He eventually presented his ideas in a book

Buy Now entitled L’Art Non Figuratif Non Objectif (1949).

Herbin was one of the founders of the influential Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1946. He held many solo shows from 1914 onwards and since his death in 1960 his work has featured in most of the retrospective exhibitions relating to the rise of Abstraction in European art.

12 | POCHOIR

ANDRÉ LANSKOY £395

The son of a Russian Count, André Lanskoy was born in Moscow in 1902. At the age of nineteen he moved to Paris where he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumiére and met Larionov and Soutine.

However it was only after World War II that Lanskoy really engaged with Abstraction and even then, for him, colour retained it precedence over form.

Lanskoy exhibited at several important collective shows in Paris including the

Buy Now Salon de Mai and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, the latter organising a posthumous tribute to him in 1977. His abstract work was shown for the first time at the Galerie Louis Carré, Paris in 1948 and then later, internationally, in Brussels, London, Lausanne, Berlin and New York.

| 13

NICOLAS DE STAEL ÂŁ575

The son of a Russian aristocrat, Nicolas de Stael was born in St. Petersburg in 1914.

His family fled the Russian Revolution and he was brought up in Brussels, studying at the AcadĂŠmie Royale des Beaux-Arts from 1932. In 1935 he stayed in Paris for the first time and eventually settled in France for the remainder of his life.

After release from military service in 1940 de Stael spent time with the likes of Sonia Delaunay, Le Corbusier and Jean Arp and

Buy Now with their influence he developed his abstract art. He participated in the Abstract Paintings exhibition, Paris (1944) and then regularly in collective and solo shows until his death in 1955.

Posthumously he has been the subject of several retrospective shows.

14 | POCHOIR

JULES CHAPOVAL ÂŁ395

Jules Chapoval was born in Kiev in 1919 but settled in France at the age of seven and remained there for the rest of his life.

He was active as a painter, collage artist, draughtsman and engraver and in 1947 he won 2nd prize at the Prix de la Jeune Peinture and two years later the Prix Kandinsky.

From around 1947 Chapoval devoted himself to Abstraction but sadly his career was brief as he was found dead in his

Buy Now studio in December 1951. Nevertheless he is known to have created around 400 paintings and after his death his work was shown in several exhibitions from the Paintings of the New School of Paris (1952) through to retrospectives in the 1990s.

| 15

JEAN LEPPIEN £395

Leppien was born at Luneburg, Germany into an old Huguenot family long settled in northern Germany. In 1927 he started studying at the Bauhaus where his tutors included Klee and Kandinsky and four years later he was in Berlin painting with Moholy-Nagy and studying photography.

With the rise of the Nazis, Leppien moved to Paris in 1933 and worked in various jobs including advertising and interior decoration. Post-war, Leppien, who’s first

Buy Now painting (1927) had been abstract, renewed his interest in Abstraction and exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1946 and where he continued to serve on the committee until his death in 1991. He received posthumous retrospectives at the Galerie Lahumiére, Paris (1997) and the Galerie Arnoux, Paris (2002).

16 | POCHOIR

EDGARD PILLET £495

Edgard Pillet was a versatile French artist being variously a painter, sculptor, engraver, architect and designer. Having studied at the Schools of Fine Art in Bordeaux and Paris before World War II Pillet became active in post-war French art circles winning the Prix de la Jeune Sculpture in Paris (1948) and the Prix de la Critique in Brussels (1953). In 1950 he co-founded, with Jean Dewasne, the Abstract Art Studio in Paris and in 1951 year he made an abstract film, Genesis.

Buy Now It was also in the post-war period that Pillet’s art moved towards Abstraction and he was one of the first practitioners of Geometrical Abstraction in France. He exhibited in many group shows, particularly the Salon de Mai and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles from 1949 onwards and also held many solo exhibitions.

| 17

SERGE POLIAKOFF £595

Although born in Moscow, Poliakoff moved to Paris as a young man and spent most of his life there until his death in 1969. He studied at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière in 1929 and then more seriously at the Slade School, London (1935-37). Until 1938 he painted mainly nudes but in that year he met the Delaunays and also exhibited his first abstract paintings at the Galerie Le Niveau in Paris. After that his work was shown at other Paris venues such as the

Buy Now Salon de Mai, the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and the Galerie Denise René.

He also gained a wide international reputation and won the Kandinsky Prize (1947), the Lissone Prize (1956), the International Prize at the Tokyo Biennale (1965) and the Grand Prix at the Menton Biennale (1966).

18 | POCHOIR

ALBERTO MAGNELLI £475

Although born in Florence in 1888, Magnelli was active in France from 1931 and worked as a painter, collage artist and engraver. Largely a self-taught artist he initially trained himself by viewing renaissance art in local museums, particularly Piero della Francesca.

However by 1913 he was associating with leading contemporary Futurist artists including Boccioni and Cara but although Marinetti asked him to join the movement he refused.

Buy Now

He visited Paris in 1914 and met leading artists such as Léger, Picasso, Matisse and Gris but he only settled there seventeen years later. He exhibited with the New Realties Group in Paris in 1939 and post war at the Venice Biennale (1950 & 1960) and the São Paulo Biennale (1953).

| 19

RICHARD MORTENSEN £445

Born in Copenhagen, Richard Mortensen studied at the Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi during 1931-32 but then moved to Berlin where he came under the influence of the work of Kandinsky. In 1947 he moved to France where he met artists associated with the Galerie Denise René, Paris, including Herbin and Vasarely.

Mortensen had been interested in Surrealism during his student days and his

Buy Now

art had gradually become more abstract.

He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris from 1948 onwards and at other venues showing abstract art. He held numerous solo exhibitions and won the Edvard Munch prize (1946) and the Kandinsky prize (1951).

20 | POCHOIR

ALFRED RETH ÂŁ395

Reth was born in Budapest in 1884 but at the age of twenty-one he settled in Paris and studied at the academy of Jacques Emile Blanche. In 1909-11 his drawings were considered by some to have approached pure Abstraction based as they were on a system of harmonious ratios between the number of straight and curved lines. In the 1920s Reth did achieve pure Abstraction through his organised rhythmically, curved lines balanced by straight ones.

Buy Now Reth contributed to a large number of group and solo exhibitions throughout his career and after his death in 1966 he was given retrospectives at the Galerie Armand Zerbib, Paris (1968) and the Institut Hongrois, Paris (2003).

| 21

VICTOR VASARELY £645

Born in Pécs, Hungary in 1908, Vasarely was yet another artist who settled in France but before doing so he had studied at the Bauhaus under Albers and MoholyNagy. Post World War II he was involved in founding the Denise René Gallery in Paris which for many years supported geometrical Abstraction in art.

Personally his paintings started to reflect Abstraction around 1947, influenced by Mondrian but he is probably best known

Buy Now for his influence upon what became known as Op Art. Vasarely won several prizes including the Critic’s Prize in Brussels, the gold medal at the Milan Triennale, the Guggenheim International Prize (1964) and the Grand Prix of the São Paulo Biennale.

Pochoir is a method of printing using stencils

and was popular in Europe, particularly France,

around the turn of the century. It is a very labour intensive and expensive technique, which

produces an image that is often indistinguishable

from the artist’s hand-painted original. The image

is cut into a stencil made from a fine sheet of

metal then gouache or watercolour is applied by

hand using a variety of different brushes. A

separate stencil is required for each colour,

sometimes up to twenty being used. The viscosity

of the paint, the number of passes the stenciller makes with the brush and the thickness of the

brush itself all affect the final colouration.

TO ORDER PHONE 01572 821424 prices include frame, vat and uk delivery

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SEPTEMBER 2012

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