Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo

Corneille (actually Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo; born July 3, 1922 in Liege, † 5 September 2010 in Auvers- sur -Oise ) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, poet and co-founder of the artists' group CoBrA.

Life

Corneille was born as the son of Dutch parents in Liège, Belgium. He grew up in the Netherlands and studied from 1940 to 1943 at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In 1946 he had his first solo exhibition in Groningen, in 1947, he joined the artistic movement reflex with Karel Appel and Constant Nieuwenhuys at. A year later, the three left the movement and established artists with other Neo - Expressionists, the CoBrA group. In 1949 he traveled to Tunisia; it was the first of many long trips to Africa, later to Asia and the Americas. 1950 Corneille moved to Paris where he lived and worked until his death. In Paris, Corneille began to deal with etchings and ceramics.

Work

Corneille had an expressive and fast style, though much finer than his colleagues from the CoBrA group. With the dissolution of the group also changed his technique. His travels to other continents were reflected in his middle and late phases of work. He worked extensively with the local landscapes and cultures. His paintings developed a strong color and had a much more reduced structure. The impetuous style of painting from the CoBrA time had passed Cormeilles. The pictures now possessed a calm and clear style. The simple drawing technique and the reduction of perspective and shadows retained the artist.

After the trip to Cuba in 1967 his work took on a new lyrical expression and a symbolic visual language that he used until his death. Recurring symbols in his paintings (woman, bird, palm) are typical of this phase.

He is, alongside Karel Appel, as the most important post-war artists from the Benelux countries. His works can be found among others in the Stedelijk Museum ( Amsterdam) and the Cobra Museum ( Amstelveen ). A very large part of his works are in private collections. Corneille took part in documenta II (1959) and the documenta III in Kassel in 1964.