Corneille (Dutch, b. 1922) and Hugo Claus (Belgian, b. 1929)
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Corneille (Dutch, b. 1922) and Hugo Claus (Belgian, b. 1929)

Lustful figures

Details
Corneille (Dutch, b. 1922) and Hugo Claus (Belgian, b. 1929)
Lustful figures
signed and dated 'Hugo Claus/Corneille/1951' (upper left)
oil on canvas
47 x 44 cm.
Provenance
Karel van Stuijvenberg, Caracas.
Amsterdam, Cobramuseum of Modern Art, on loan until 2001.
Literature
Chris van der Heyden, Cobra 40 jaar later, The Hague 1988, p.68 (ill.), p. 77. W. Stokvis, Cobra, de weg naar spontaniteit, Blaricum 2003, p.274.
Exhibited
Malmö, Konsthall, Cobra, 31 October-17 December 1986, cat.no. 187.
Tokyo, Hara museum of Contemporary Art, Cobra, February - March 1986.
Stockholm, Liljevalch Art Gallery, Cobra, 12 June-6 September 1987, cat.no. 187
Amsterdam, Nieuwe kerk, Cobra 40 jaar later, 9 November-31 December 1988, p. 68 (ill.)
Oostende, Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Cobra, 7 July-14 October 1991, p. 261 (ill.)
Centro de Exposiciones y Congres Museo Camon Aznou, Cobra 50 anos del movimiento, 8 December 1997-21 February 1998, p. 128, no. 691 (ill.)
Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Cobra Movement - Fifty Years, September 1999, p. 146 (ill.)
Sao Paulo, Pinacoteca, Gruppo CoBrA, 17 July - 10 September 2000.
Curitiba/Estado do Paraná, Casa Andrade Muricy, Gruppo CoBrA, 2-31 October 2000.
Special notice
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Lot Essay

Cobra was a unique movement within international expressionism. Never before had artists from different countries joined together in such a tightly-knit organisation, to work for three years on the implimentation of their social ideals, even though it was in their own limited circle. Important sources of inspriration were 'outsider art' like primitive non-western art, drawings of children and mentally deranged.

The present lot is one of the rare preserved examples of a so-called Gesamtkunstwerk from Cobra artists, also known as collective work number 9 in the former collection of Karel van Stuyvenberg. In the Cobra movement the ideal that everybody was free to contribute, was of fundamental importance. The Cobra congres in 1948 in Bregneröd near Copenhagen might be regarded as a climax of the movement. Here the artists lived and worked together, made paintings, poems and sculptures.

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