1.- VICTOR SERVRANCKX (Belgian, 1897- 1965)
Untitled, 1946, graphite on paper
CRP394
One of the protagonists of the Belgian avant-garde, Servranckx was born in Diegem (Belgium) and studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), where he graduated in 1917 with the highest distinction and met Karel Maes, Pierre-Louis Flouquet, Marcel-Louis Baugniet, and René Magritte. Between 1917 and 1919, he developed Symbolism. From 1917 the artist took part in various group exhibitions; in 1918, together with Magritte, he developed applied arts as a designer for Peters-Lacroix’s wallpaper factory, an experience that led him from Fauvism to geometric abstraction. In 1920 he joined the La plastique pure movement. In 1922 Servranckx co-founded the magazine 7 Arts and with Magritte wrote the manifesto L’art pur: Défense de l’estéthique, influenced by Le Corbusier, Amédée Ozenfant and Pierre Reverdy’s cubist theories. Inspired by Baumeister and purists, the artist abandoned figuration for abstraction; he geometrically evoked the world of machine and technology. In 1918 he exhibited his work for the first time at l’Effort Moderne, a meeting place for Cubists since World War II; there, the artist met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Theo van Doesburg, Fernand Léger, and Marcel Duchamp. In 1926, thanks to Duchamp, he participated in the exhibitions of the Katherine Dreyer Corporation in America and was invited by Moholy-Nagy to teach at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, an offer he refused. Servranckx received a gold medal at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (Paris, 1925). In 1926 the artist created the first “surrealist” and “organic” abstractions, before Ernst. In 1928 he exhibited at Der Sturm. He represented Belgium at the 1948 and 1954 Venice Biennials. The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels organised a major retrospective; his works can be seen in MoMA, the Berardo Collection (Lisbon), the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid), the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Ghent), the Musée National d’Art Moderne of the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (Paris),and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Antwerp and Brussels). His paintings, sculptures and works on paper have been exhibited in museums such as Lakenhal (Leiden) and Tate Modern (London).
2.- VICTOR SERVRANCKX (Belgian, 1897- 1965)
Untitled, 1946, graphite on paper
CRP395
3.- FRIEDRICH VORDEMBERGE-GILDEWART (German, 1899- 1962)
Composition, 1-12, c. 1939-41, tempera on wood panel with its original painted wood frame
CRP196
Born in Osnabrück (Germany). A Neoplasticist, he was one of the first painters to produce abstract art throughout his career. The artist studied Architecture, Interior Design, and Sculpture at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Hannover). In 1924 he formed the K Group in his city, comprised of abstract artists, and joined Der Sturm in Berlin. The artist met Theo van Doesburg, Kurt Schwitters and Jean Arp; he joined De Stijl in 1925 and Cercle et Carré (Paris) in 1930; the following year, he became a founding member of Abstraction-Création, also in the French capital. In 1937 the artist was included in the “degenerate art” exhibition by the Nazis, who confiscated most of his work; he had to flee to the Netherlands.
4.- KOLOMAN MOSER (Austrian, 1868- 1918)
Breakfast room set comprising a table and six chairs, 1903, executed by the Hoftischler J. W. Müller (court cabinet maker), Vienna
CRP025
Born in Vienna. A designer and graphic artist, Moser produced graphics, stained glass, ceramics, porcelain, blown glass, ceramics, silverware, jewellery, furniture, and clothes. He studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste and the Universität für angewandte Kunst(Vienna); he was inspired by the clear lines and repetitive motifs of Classical Greek and Roman Art as a reaction to the Baroque Viennese environment. In 1903, alongside Josef Hoffmann, the artist founded the Wiener Werkstätte, whose craftsmen produced household objects. In 1905, with Gustav Klimt’s group, he separated from the Secession of Vienna, and in 1907 from the Werkstätte.
5.- ROGER DESSERPRIT (French, 1923- 1985)
Composition, 1950, painted wood and stainless steel assemblage
CRP225
Born in Buxy (Saône et Loire, France). Desserprit studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but the classical teaching was not to his liking; he opened up to the artistic movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries by seeing the work of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in books and that of artists such as André Derain and Maurice Vlaminck in the galleries of the Latin Quarter. The artist met Jean-René Bazaine, Raoul Ubac, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva and, through the latter, Carmelo Arden and the MADI group, defenders of an abstract geometric aesthetic arising from the Neoplasticism of Piet Mondrian and the discussion of the Concrete Art of Doesburg. Desserprit then met Michel Seuphor, Marcelle Cahn, Auguste Herbin, Jean Arp and others; in 1949 he began to exhibit at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; members of the Salon included Arp, Jean-Baptiste Besançon, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Dewasne, Albert Gleizes, Jean Gorin, and Antoine Pevsner. In the support manifesto for the magazine Art d’aujourd’hui, he called with others for the “synthesis of the arts”; in 1951, he held an important exhibition entitled Structures et reliefs lumineux at the Colette Allendy gallery. The crucial point for understanding his work can be dated back to the 1970s. Desserprit exhibited and won awards in France, Italy and Monaco. His work is part of private collections in France and Italy, as well as the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d’Art Moderne (Grenoble), and the Musée des Ursulines (Mâcon); one of his sculptures belongs to the city of Mâcon. He made a piece for the Crypte desDéportés, on the Île Saint-Louis (Paris).