Lot 26
  • 26

Bram van Velde

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Description

  • Bram van Velde
  • Composition
  • oil on canvas
  • 143 by 233cm.
  • 56 1/4 by 91 3/4 in.
  • Executed in 1957.

Provenance

Collection G. de Neufville, Paris
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1974

Exhibited

Bern, Kunsthalle, Bram van Velde Retrospective, 1958
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Bram van Velde Rétrospective, 1970
Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Bram van Velde Rétrospective, 1971
Saint-Paul-de Vence, Fondation Maeght, Bram van Velde Retrospective, 1973
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou; Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum; Valencia, IVAM, Centro Julio Gonzalez; Madrid, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Bram van Velde, 1989-1990, p. 186, illustrated

Literature

Jacques Putman, Samuel Beckett & Georges Duthuit, Bram van Velde, Paris 1958, p. 41, illustrated in color
Jacques Putman, Bram van Velde, Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre peint 1907-1960, Turin 1961, no. 209, illustrated
Jean Clarence Lambert, La peinture abstraite, Paris 1967, p. 54, illustrated in colour
Jacques Putnam & Charles Juliet, Bram van Velde, Paris 1975, p. 179, illustrated

Catalogue Note

Parisian Bram van Velde is recognised as being the conduit between the works of American Abstract painters (in particular, fellow countryman Willem de Kooning), with those of the COBRA group. In his History of Modern Art, H. H. Arnason dubbed van Velde, "One of the most isolated and powerful of Art Informel painters.” For Beckett and artists of the post-war generation, Van Velde embodied the spirit of optimism during an austere and sombre period. This spirit is clearly translated in this colourful composition which can only be described as an expression of raw emotion with its bright bursts of colour and spontaneous brushwork. The fury, passion, and hope felt by his generation are evoked to perfection, restricted only by the size of the canvas.