Nicolas de Staël : Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, [May 2 - May 31] 2013

📖 The Scoop

Nicolas de Staël was one of the most influential and celebrated European painters of the post-War period. In the course of a tragically brief career he became a leading figure of what is now called the School of Paris. Expanding on the tradition of artists including Henri Matisse and de Staël's close friend Georges Braque, he forged his own unique and unparalleled style. Hovering between figuration and abstraction, his paintings are marked by their heavily impastoed surface, their simplicity of composition, and a bold but sophisticated use of color. De Staël was once quoted as saying that painting consisted of "l'entre-deux, what lies between the two." This notion is evident everywhere in his painting, as the juxtaposition of abstract shapes of color creates the sense of space, place and light for which he is known. De Staël's career was brief but intense, spanning only about 15 years. He first began exhibiting in Europe in the 1940s. By the early 1950s, he was well-known in Europe and had begun to exhibit in New York, most notably at Knoedler & Co. and at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery. This exhibition included a dozen paintings from the 1950s, the artist's most prolific and significant period. -- Adapted from the Mitchell-Innes & Nash's website.

Genre: Art / European (fancy, right?)