CORNEILLE (1922-2010) Guillaume CORNELIS VAN BEVERLOO - Lot 13

CORNEILLE (1922-2010) Guillaume CORNELIS VAN BEVERLOO L'amour fou, silkscreen, signed Corneille and dated 94 upper left, 59.5 x 42 cm. Note: Trained at the Amsterdam School of Fine Arts, Corneille began exhibiting in 1946, before discovering Surrealism. In 1948, together with Karel Appel, Eugène Brands, Constant Nieuwenhuis, Anton Rooskens and Theo Wolvecamp, he co-founded the Experimentele Groep in Holland, which published Reflex and foreshadowed Cobra. The following year, he became one of the main initiators of the Cobra movement alongside Appel, Constant, Asger Jorn and Christian Dotremont, soon joined by Jacques Doucet, Pierre Alechinsky, Henry Heerup, Reinhoud, Else Alfelt, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Egill Jacobsen, C.O. Hultén, Anders Österlind and Max Walter Svanberg. After a first trip to North Africa in 1949, he exhibited in Paris (Galerie Colette Allendy) and took part in the Cobra exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum. After settling in Paris, he took up etching at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 in 1953. After an abstract period following the dissolution of Cobra in 1951, he returned to figuration in the 1960s, drawing on the luxuriance of Africa, South America and Mexico. His iconic vocabulary of woman, bird, sun, snake and cat recaptured the expressiveness and lyrical élan of Cobra. From 1954, Corneille produced his first ceramics, followed by polychrome wood sculptures from 1992 onwards, the year of an African sojourn filmed by Jos Wassink for the exhibition Corneille, le visage Africain designed by Ronald A.R. Kerkhoven. He exhibited at Galerie Mathias Fels in 1964, collaborated with the Figuration Narrative movement (Hervé Télémaque) and in 1977 published photographic albums on Africa and his collection of African art. Between 1982 and 1992, he held a series of exhibitions and produced a number of graphic works, before discovering aquagravure in 1999, a hybrid technique ideal for his strong line and vivid colors.