• Christies auction house James Christie logo

    Sale 7600

    Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale

    London

    |

    25 June 2008

    Browse Sale
Previous Lot
Search
Next Lot
    • Edmond van Dooren (Belgian, 18
    Lot 447

    Edmond van Dooren (Belgian, 1896-1965)

    Stadtvision (cubo-futurist composition)

    Price realised

    GBP 37,250

    Estimate

    GBP 25,000 - GBP 35,000

    Follow lot
    Add to Interests

    Edmond van Dooren (Belgian, 1896-1965)
    Stadtvision (cubo-futurist composition)
    signed 'E.van Dooren.' (lower right)
    oil on canvas
    52 x 55 7/8 in. (132 x 142 cm.)
    Painted circa 1925-1926

    Provenance

    The artist's estate.
    Obelisk Internationaler Kunsthandel, Heidelberg.
    Acquired from the above by the present owner.

    Contact us

    • Contact Client Service

      info@christies.com

      New York +1 212 636 2000

      London +44 (0)20 7839 9060

      infoasia@christies.com

      Asia +852 2760 1766

    Literature and exhibited

    Exhibited

    Heidelberg, Obelisk Internationaler Kunsthandel, Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1991 (illustrated pp. 22-23).
    Altenburg, Lindenau-Museum, Internationale Sprachen der Kunst: Gemälde, Zeichnungen und Skulpturen der Klassischen Moderne aus der Sammlung Hoh, August - October 1998, no. 15 (illustrated p. 53); this exhibition later travelled to Osnabrück, Kulturgeschichtliches Museum Felix-Nussbaum-Haus, Dortmund, Museum am Ostwall and Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum.


    Lot Essay

    Into this vision of the city, Edmond van Dooren sought to introduce the universal language of abstraction as a means of conveying the force and dynamism of urban life. The girders and ramps of his jarring and fragmented structures jut forcefully upwards to replicate the imposing geometry of modern architecture. With an oblique angularity that appears to reference Vladimir Tatlin's monumental, constructivist tower design, the prismatic composition of Stadtvision exemplifies van Dooren's exploration of semi-abstract form, based on the structural patterns and frenetic pace of the metropolis.

    Van Dooren's fantastical cityscape invokes modern living as a triumphant and vibrant experience and is an expression of his utopian vision of the future. The painter was amongst the forefront of Belgium's avant-garde art scene, and developed his distinctly precipitous variation of cubist and futurist ideas after coming into contact with Theo van Doesburg and Tommaso Marinetti in 1918. It was in this year that van Dooren would found the Moderne Kunst group with Jozef Peeters to provide a link between the avant-garde in Belgium and abroad. Inspired by van Doesburg's De Stijl publication, Moderne Kunst established the influential periodical Het Overzicht (The Overview). The periodical was one of the most important reviews in Europe for abstract and constructivist art, and served as an important rallying point for progressive contemporary art until its suspension in 1925. Van Dooren was also noted for his contributions to the group's series of exhibitions and conferences throughout the 1920s, which promoted the work of Magritte, Archipenko, Balla, Klee, Schwitters and Vantongerloo, amongst others. Moderne Kunst played a significant role in bringing international modernism to the attention of the Belgian art community and van Dooren's association with these artists reinforced his exploration of a geometric abstraction that responds to the modern environment and posits new ideas about the nature of form and space.

    Other information

    Special Notice

    No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.


    Pre-Lot Text

    PROPERTY FROM THE HOH COLLECTION

    Recommended features

      • Live like a Rockefeller — Pabl
      • Live like a Rockefeller — Pablo Picasso’s Pomme

        Jonathan Rendell, Christie’s ’story teller’ for The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, looks at a painting that gives him ‘goose-bumps’

      • From Gertrude Stein to the Roc
      • From Gertrude Stein to the Rockefellers: The collecting of modernist masterpieces

        Impressionist & Modern specialists Max Carter and Jessica Fertig on how works collected by Gertrude Stein came to be acquired by Peggy and David Rockefeller

      • German Expressionism: An essen
      • German Expressionism: An essential guide

        The early 20th-century movement that featured Heckel, Kandinsky and Klee, and which continues to influence artists working today

      • Collecting Guide: Picasso 
      • Collecting Guide: Picasso ceramics

        Christie's specialists offer tips on buying and collecting, from what to look for in a glaze to how to read hidden stamps and markings

      • Antenna: The enduring friendsh
      • Antenna: The enduring friendship of Hepburn and Givenchy

        Ahead of an online sale that honours their close bond, Meredith Etherington-Smith​ traces the roots of a 40-year collaboration

      • Francis Bacon’s Study for Port
      • Francis Bacon’s Study for Portrait

        Francis Bacon's poignant celebration of George Dyer, the artist's most important subject, will star in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 17 May

Share
Email
Copy link
Share
Email
Copy link