René Mels (1909-1977) - Composition abstraite de 1965

René Mels (1909-1977) – Composition – around 1965 – Watercolor and ink – Signed René Mels (1909-1977) Composition Watercolor and ink on paper, around 1965 Signature Monogram “RM” in the bottom left. No date inscribed. Verso blank. Dimensions 44 × 29 cm Sold unframed Condition Nice sheet, tones retained. Paper slightly yellowed with time, visible grain, a few handling creases and light waves. No major losses visible. The recto remains clear. See photos. Description Watercolor and ink, untitled, dated around 1965. The sheet is covered with browns washes, bright blue, pink, carmine and violet, with olive and ochre passages. The black ink runs over it: curls, hatchings, free lines, a large arabesque in the bottom left. The stains stay open, the white of the paper peeks through in places. The gesture is firmer and more graphic than in the 1975 watercolors: the line sustains the composition as much as the color. This is a sheet from the abstract period, after Abstract Art and around Cap d’encre, where Mels blends wash and writing. Horizontal, compact format. Color is laid down in blocks, the line on top, without description. Biography René Mels (René Meulemans, 1909-1977) trained at the Academies of Leuven and Brussels, then at La Cambre. After an expressionist start influenced by Permeke, he shifts in 1947 toward abstraction. An active member of Young Belgian Painting (exhibitions 1947-1948 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels), he joined the group Art abstrait in 1952 and co-founded Cap d’encre in 1963. His work is characterized by a concern for construction, fluency of writing and expressive chromaticism. In 1950, a state grant allowed him to work at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris. His watercolors, etchings, pastels and paintings are held in numerous public Belgian and international collections, notably at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

Estimate:$336.13

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