Corneille

Galerie Birch, Copenhagen

Private Collection, Denmark (acquired from the above in 1958)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Executed in 1955, Animation riveraine is a window onto Corneille's highly personal universe, dominated by primordial forces: the stars, the clouds, light and the earth. Through a skilful interweaving of shapes and colours, a landscape emerges from the painted surface. It is the explosion of forms that interests the artist, as it allows him to recount the genesis of the world, where order emerges from chaos and the art of free form. Animation riveraine offers a rare opportunity to contemplate the artist's creative force in an imposing format.

The creation of Animation riveraine coincided with a pivotal period in Corneille's career, following the dissolution of the CoBrA group (1948-1951), during which he developed a more structured pictorial language while retaining the spontaneous vitality and freedom of movement characteristic of the movement. In this post-CoBrA period, he moved closer to the explorations of “Lyrical Abstraction”, which enriched his already colourful and captivating style. The result of this subtle aesthetic maturation, Animation riveraine invites us to dream, to contemplate the pure energies of shapes and colours. Corneille takes us into a landscape transformed into a space of inner freedom where the world and nature merge in the same heartbeat.