CORNEILLE (1922-2010) Cat and birds (Corks and corkscrew)

signed and numbered ‘Corneille 305/999’ painted wood and resin Edition 305/999 H. 19 cm (cat), 10 cm (birds) in original wooden box signed ‘Corneille’, 24 x 21 x 7 cm Corneille, whose real name was Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo, was a Dutch painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramicist. He was one of the founders of the Cobra group, alongside Karel Appel, Constant Nieuwenhuis, Asger Jorn and Dotremont. After moving towards abstraction (abstract landscape painting) following the break-up of the Cobra group in 1951, he returned to figurative art in the early 1960s. Impressed by the lushness of nature in certain countries he visited (Africa, South America, Mexico, etc.), he returned to the passionate, expressionist style of his Cobra period. In his later works, imbued with lyricism, the woman (who represents the Earth in the artist’s language), the bird (the masculine element and the artist himself), the sun and the snake (symbols of the feminine and masculine sexes), as well as the cat, are omnipresent. His first ceramics date from 1954 and his first polychrome wood sculptures from 1992. In 1999, he took up lithography and discovered aquagravure, a technique he used in his work for Éditions l’Estampe and their workshops. Aquagravure is a relatively new technique that lies between sculpture and lithography. This relief process is well suited to the artist’s bold lines and vivid colours.