Corneille (b. 1922)

Mid-Day Pasture

Details

Corneille (b. 1922)
Mid-Day Pasture
signed and dated upper left Corneille '59, and signed and dated again and inscribed with title on the reverse
oil on canvas
161 x 130 cm

Provenance

Galerie Ariel, Paris, inv.no. 2067
Court Gallery, Copenhagen, inv.no. 1063

Exhibited

Paris, Musée de l'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Salon de Mai, 1959
Sao Paolo, Museu de Arte Moderna, V Bienal de Sao Paolo, September-December 1959, cat.no. 27
The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Corneille, 14 July - 3 September 1961, no.55
Eindhoven, Stedelijk Museum van Abbe, Corneille, 15 September - 29 October 1961, no.55
Venice, XXXI Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, 1962, cat.no. 7/491
Copenhagen, Udstillet i Kunstforeningen, 1971, cat.no. 33

Lot Essay

Together with the female nude, the roaring city with its playing and swarming lines, and the earth with its unpredictable, restless forms are the most important themes in Corneilles oeuvre. The latter is the central motive in the present lot. Travelling through the African outbacks since 1955, Corneille became more and more fascinated by the element earth, in the shape of whimsical stone formations, dry river-beds, crossections of the earth's crust. In them he searched for the inner life of nature, as opposed to the visible. Or, as he stated in 1955: "Again we are in contact, again we are communicating with the living force of nature. Themes? The subject-matter provides us. At this very moment they can be found in paint, in colours, they are proceding from lines, from the entangled plaited and tied line, from stains".

See colour illustration

More from `CoBra 50th Anniversary Sale

View All