Michel Seuphor

Michel Seuphor ( born March 10, 1901 in Antwerp, † February 12, 1999 in Paris, actually Ferdinand Berckelaers ) was born in Belgium art critic, painter, graphic artist and ceramist. In 1954, he acquired French citizenship.

Life and work

Seuphor founded in 1921 with Joseph Peeters and Geert Pijnenburg the magazine " Het Overzicht " ( The overview or the survey ), which was published until 1925. Later he published important contributions to modern art, especially about Piet Mondrian.

From 1922 stood Seuphor with several avant-garde artists in the European centers of art ( Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris) in conjunction, including Willi Baumeister, Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay - Terk, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, Albert Gleizes, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber -Arp and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. This circle gathered Cubists, Dadaists, Futurists and Constructivists.

From 1925 he lived in Paris, where he 1929 the group " Cercle et Carré " co-founded ( circle and rectangle). 1930 Seuphor organized the first exhibition of the group, which was attended, among others, Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp, Willi Baumeister, Sophie Taeuber- Arp, Fernand Léger, Kurt Schwitters, Wassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier and Alberto Sartoris. 1931 was this group in the artist group " Abstraction- Création " on. As a sculptor he himself took from 1933 participated in several collective exhibitions in France and Europe.

After the Second World War Seuphor realized another major exhibition projects such as 1949 " Les Maîtres de l'Art Abstrait Premiers " ( The first masters of abstract art ), 1958 " 50 ans d'Art Abstrait " (50 years Abstract ), 1959 in the United States, "Construction and Geometry painting" ( construction and Geometric painting), participated in the documenta II in Kassel and the large Mondrian retrospective at the Orangerie in Paris in 1959.

Berckelaers Seuphor pseudonym is an anagram of Orpheus, which he had assumed in 1918.

Writings

  • Piet Mondrian: sa vie, son oeuvre, Flammarion, Paris, 1956; Piet Mondrian. Life and work. DuMont, Cologne 1957
  • Le don de la parole. Réflexions sur la langage. Paris 1970
  • Écrits, oeuvres, documents et témoignages. Paris 1976
  • Paraboliques. Paris 1968
  • La vocation of Mots. Accompagné de dessins à 7 lacunes. Lausanne 1966
Jean Arp Cubism Futurism Constructivism (art) Integrated Authority File
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