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Marcus de Vestele abstract composition with 2 women circa 1975
€325€250-23%Bid from €160
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Batalha, PortugalOn Whoppah since July 2024 • 58 sales
Product description
This painting on paper by Marcus de Vestele, produced in the mid-1970s, illustrates a free, expressive approach to the human figure. Two female figures occupy the composition: one seated, with a straight bust and a face marked by bright red hair, the other reclining, more diffuse and relaxed. Warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) mingle with cool shades (blues, grays), creating a vibrant, emotional contrast. The technique, fluid and spontaneous, favors suggestion over precision, with blurred contours and flat tints that dissolve space. The result is an atmosphere both intimate and timeless, where color and gesture convey emotional intensity rather than realistic representation.
Biography
Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) remains a major figure in contemporary Belgian art, celebrated internationally for his monumental abstract sculptures, which made their mark on public spaces from the 1980s onwards. Yet behind the sculptor's renown lay a secret painter, whose long-unknown pictorial work is now revealing an unprecedented and deeply moving facet of his creative genius.
An extraordinary artistic career
Born in Brussels in 1941, Marcus de Vestele grew up in a family sensitive to the arts, immersed from an early age in the cultural effervescence of the post-war period. Although he soon turned to sculpture, it was in the solitude of his studio, between 1963 and the early 1980s, that he developed a singular pictorial language, far removed from the trends of the day.
Painting, a secret garden
For almost two decades, Marcus de Vestele painted in secret, relentlessly exploring the infinite possibilities of abstraction. This period, long ignored even by those closest to him, bears witness to an intense inner quest, in which color, material and gesture become the vectors of pure expression, free from all constraints.
His deep interest in the Cobra group, a European artistic movement founded in the late 1940s, strongly influenced his pictorial approach. Fascinated by the creative freedom, spontaneity of gesture and raw energy that characterize Cobra, Marcus de Vestele draws inspiration from major figures such as Asger Jorn, Karel Appel and Pierre Alechinsky. Much of his work is characterized by chromatic vitality, a rejection of convention and a desire to return to instinctive expression, close to childhood and dreams. Marcus' compositions, with their organic forms, vibrant colors and gestural lyricism, reflect a constant dialogue with the spirit of Cobra, while asserting a personal language deeply rooted in the history of European abstraction.
His paintings, never exhibited in his lifetime, reveal a formal audacity and a rare sensitivity. The vibrant compositions, oscillating between gestural lyricism and geometric rigor, reflect a quest for the essential, a desire to grasp the invisible and give form to raw emotion.
A rediscovered artistic treasure
It was only after the artist's death in 2024 that his family discovered, in the privacy of his studio, almost 400 previously unpublished pictorial works. This exceptional collection, now accessible, represents a major event in Belgian and international art history. It offers a fresh perspective on Marcus de Vestele's work, and provides an insight into the depth of his artistic approach, in which painting and sculpture engage in a silent dialogue.
A legacy to discover
The acquisition of this unique ensemble opens a new page in the reception of Marcus de Vestele. Enthusiasts and collectors now have the opportunity to plunge into the secret world of a visionary creator, whose painting, long kept in the shadows, sheds new light on his entire oeuvre.
These vibrant, powerful and astonishingly modern paintings are destined to join the great collections and arouse the curiosity of contemporary art enthusiasts. They bear witness to the freedom, exacting standards and poetry of an artist who, throughout his life, preserved the very essence of creation: audacity and mystery.
Marcus de Vestele, secret painter, recognized sculptor, is now one of the most fascinating and complete figures of European abstraction. His paintings, now finally revealed, promise to enrich the world's artistic heritage and inspire new generations of artists and collectors.
This exceptional discovery is an invitation to rediscover Marcus de Vestele in a new light, and to measure the scope of a talent that has never ceased to reinvent itself, in both discretion and light.
Specifications
ConditionVery goodColorsMulti ColorMaterialPaperNumber of items1Height36 cmWidth54 cm
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About this seller
Batalha, PortugalOn Whoppah since July 2024 • 58 sales