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Abstract paintings subject • artists • artworks for sale abstract in fine art

In Dutch post-war art, the exact representation of visible reality is definitively abandoned by many painters. Color and form are no longer in the service of the recognizable representation, but are independent means of expression. There is room for fantasy and experiment. The experience of the abstract work of art, stripped of reality as a point of reference, has become highly individual.

Demolition and construction
The emergence of abstract art around the First and Second World War seems to be linked to periods of destruction and reconstruction. Committed artists want a new art and a new society. Others look for the essence of things, the deeper reality behind the confusing multiplicity of the visible world. The abstraction, free from artistic traditions and social conventions, offers the opportunity to experiment with means of expression. Kandinsky, lyrical-abstract Orphism, Klee, the École de Paris, Mondrian, but also painters of De Ploeg are examples of this. After 1945, the Experimental Group, CoBrA and a number of young Amsterdam and Hague painters in particular form the face of abstract art in the Netherlands.

The A of CoBrA
In Amsterdam, after 1945, free experimentation is immediately reflected in the work of Karel Appel. He paints colorful human animal creatures and writes to his painter friend Corneille: "You shouldn't belong in a box (...) throw everything overboard". Corneille and Constant are also looking for a new visual language, just like Anton Rooskens, who in 1948 draws inspiration for his compositions from the "spontaneous", "primitive" art of South America and Africa. In 1948 they set up "The Experimental Group" together. Theo Wolvecamp and Eugène Brands join, as do Lucebert. At the end of 1948 Constant, Corneille and Appel are co-founders of the CoBrA group. And although the painters who belong to it soon go their separate ways - CoBrA is disbanded in 1951 - what binds them together is a common language: experimental, spontaneous and infinitely versatile in shape and color.

Children's drawings
For many artists, CoBrA was the inspiration to go their own way. Pieter Defesche, a member of the Amsterdam Limburgers, studied at the Amsterdam Rijksacademie shortly after the war. He absorbs the abstract expressionism of the CoBrA painters in lyrical compositions with the warm colors of the earth and the deep blues of the night. And a number of painters from The Hague, usually more modest than the Amsterdam painters, are seen as kindred spirits of CoBrA. Jan Roëde, for example, exhibits spontaneous work in 1948 that resembles children's drawings. He is asked to join the group, but he distances himself from the noise they are making. He develops his style in The Hague, in peace. Colors come first, then the shape. "I paint and don't know what it's going to be," he once said; with which he connects with Appel and his followers.

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Eugène Brands | Landscape, gouache on board, 30.8 x 28.3 cm, signed l.l. and dated '73

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Landscape, 1973

Eugène Brands | Landschap met wolkenlucht (Landscape with cloudy sky), gouache on paper, 67.4 x 91.0 cm, signed on the reverse and dated on the reverse 16.I.1971

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Landschap met wolkenlucht (Landscape with cloudy sky), 1971

Eugène Brands | Composition, gouache on paper, 22.1 x 20.7 cm, signed l.r.

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Composition

Eugène Brands | Chimney, gouache on paper, 49.5 x 37.2 cm, signed l.l. with initials

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Chimney

Jaap Nanninga | Composition on a blue background, gouache and chalk on paper, 48.0 x 61.5 cm, signed l.r. and dated '59

Jaap Nanninga

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Composition on a blue background, 1959

Willy Boers | Brown with 3 green and 1 purple stripe, collage on paper, 78.0 x 42.0 cm, signed l.c. and dated Aug 1977

Willy Boers

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Brown with 3 green and 1 purple stripe, 1977

Klaas Boonstra | Untitled, watercolour on paper, 34.5 x 45.0 cm, signed l.l.

Klaas Boonstra

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Untitled

Geer van Velde | Composition, oil on canvas, 38.0 x 60.6 cm, signed l.r. with initials and painted ca. 1944-1947

Geer van Velde

painting • for sale

Composition, ca. 1944-1947

Laurens van Kuik | Composition, oil on canvas, 46.1 x 60.2 cm, signed l.l.

Laurens van Kuik

painting • for sale

Composition

Hendrik Werkman | A muscovite Legend, stencil print on paper, 29.1 x 21.9 cm, dated august 1941

Hendrik Werkman

painting • for sale

A muscovite Legend, 1941

Hendrik Werkman | Ascensus ad infernos (Descent into hell), stencil print on paper, 23.5 x 18.6 cm, printed in 1942

Hendrik Werkman

painting • for sale

Ascensus ad infernos (Descent into hell), 1942

Eugène Brands | The mother-of-pearl box, gouache on paper, 26.7 x 34.8 cm, signed l.l. and dated 10.53

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

The mother-of-pearl box, 1953

Karel Appel | Untitled, lithograph on paper, 22.2 x 41.3 cm, signed l.r. (in pencil) and dated '59 (in pencil)

Karel Appel

prints & multiples • for sale

Untitled, 1959

Hendrik Werkman | At the grave of the unknown Dutch soldier (sonnet by Martinus Nijhoff), stencil print on paper, 24.3 x 18.9 cm, dated April 1942

Hendrik Werkman

painting • for sale

At the grave of the unknown Dutch soldier (sonnet by Martinus Nijhoff), 1942

Hugo Claus | Untitled, ink and wax crayon on photomechanic print, 15.2 x 23.3 cm, signed l.r. and dated 1953

Hugo Claus

painting • for sale

Untitled, 1953

Eugène Brands | Tuin in de zomer (Garden in summer), oil on paper, 50.4 x 54.4 cm, signed l.l. and dated 1961

Eugène Brands

painting • for sale

Tuin in de zomer (Garden in summer), 1961

Bart van der Leck | Compositie, gouache on paper, 13.5 x 16.5 cm, executed early 1930's.

Bart van der Leck

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Compositie, ca. 1930-1935

Ger Lataster | Untitled, giclée print on paper, 56.5 x 78.5 cm, signed l.r. (in pencil) and dated '70 (in pencil)

Ger Lataster

painting • for sale

Untitled, 1970

Corneille | Woman, cat and birds, lithograph on paper, 45.0 x 33.0 cm, signed l.r. (in potlood) and dated '95 (in potlood)

Corneille

prints & multiples • for sale

Woman, cat and birds, 1995

Anton Heyboer | Untitled, oil on canvas, 18.2 x 24.1 cm, signed l.c.

Anton Heyboer

painting • for sale

Untitled

Bram van Velde | Untitled, lithograph, 68.5 x 44.0 cm, signed l.r. (in pencil) and executed 1972

Bram van Velde

prints & multiples • for sale

Untitled, ca. 1972

Piet Ouborg | Figuren tussen roependen (Figures between those shouting), ink and gouache on paper, 49.0 x 64.5 cm, signed stamped and signed on the reverse and executed ca. 1945-1950

Piet Ouborg

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Figuren tussen roependen (Figures between those shouting), ca. 1945-1950

Piet Ouborg | In heftige beweging (In Violent Motion), gouache on paper laid down on board, 50.5 x 65.1 cm, signed l.r. with initials and dated '48

Piet Ouborg

watercolour • drawing • for sale

In heftige beweging (In Violent Motion), 1948

Jaap Wagemaker | Donkere figuren (Dark figures), oil on canvas, 106.4 x 130.3 cm, signed l.r. and dated '54

Jaap Wagemaker

painting • for sale

Donkere figuren (Dark figures), 1954

Eugène Brands | Composition II, gouache on board, 42.0 x 51.4 cm, signed l.l. and dated 27/1/49-A

Eugène Brands

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Composition II, 1949

Klaas Gubbels | Table, crayon and watercolour on paper, 12.5 x 16.2 cm, signed l.r. and dated '76

Klaas Gubbels

watercolour • drawing • for sale

Table, 1976

Karel Appel | A beast drawn man, lithograph on paper, 50.0 x 40.0 cm, signed l.r. (in pencil) and dated '61 (in pencil)

Karel Appel

prints & multiples • for sale

A beast drawn man

Karel Appel | Composition, lithograph, 38.9 x 49.8 cm, signed l.r. and dated '60

Karel Appel

prints & multiples • for sale

Composition, 1960


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