1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar


Lot #6032 - Paule Vezelay

  • Auction House:
    Theodore Bruce
  • Sale Name:
    Art | Australian, Aboriginal & International
  • Sale Date:
    17 May 2021 ~ 6pm (AEST)
  • Lot #:
    6032
  • Lot Description:
    Paule Vezelay
    (1893-1984) Britain
    Grey Picture
    Silkscreen ed.76/150
    68 x 47 cm, 98 x 73 cm framed
    Signed lower right
    Good condition, later framing
  • Notes:
    The Artist was born Marjorie Watson-Williams in Bristol, a daughter of the pioneering ENT surgeon, Patrick Watson-Williams [1863-1938]. Before the First World War she trained for a short period at the Slade & then at the London School of Art. She first gained recognition as a figurative painter, had her first London show in 1921 & was invited to join the London Group in 1922. She moved to France in 1926 & changed her name to Paule Vézelay possibly to identify herself with the School of Paris. In 1928 she abandoned figurative painting & made her first abstract work (now lost), from then on worked exclusively in an abstract mode. In 1929 she met Andre Masson with whom she fell in love & lived with for four years. Working side by side, both painted dreamlike surrealist works. Vezelay became well respected in modernist Parisian art circles & was elected in the 1930s to membership of the French abstract movement, Abstraction-Création, which was largely established as a reaction to Surrealism. On the outbreak of the Second World War she moved back to London, but had difficulty in gaining recognition by the British art establishment, possibly because of her identification with Paris at a time when the London art world was beginning to acquire its own separate & different reputation. However, in 1952 she was invited by Andre Bloc, president of the Parisian constructivist abstract movement Groupe Espace, to form a London branch of that movement. After many difficulties & the refusal of some leading British abstract artists to join (including Victor Pasmore), she was successful in forming a small group of painters, sculptors & architects who held an exhibition in the Royal Festival Hall in 1955 which anticipated many elements of the much better known 1956 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition, 'This is Tomorrow'. In the 1950s she made textile designs for Metz of Amsterdam & Heals of London. In many of her works, Vézelay’s abstract imagery, such as floating quasi-biomorphic shapes, was outside the main characteristics of the constructivist approach. She had a lifelong aim of creating works which were "pleasing and happy” not terms generally associated with Constructivism. However, her view that ‘pure’ abstract art enhanced the environment & her involvement with Groupe Espace in the 1950s which promoted the concept of a synthesis (or close collaboration) between architects, abstract painters & sculptors, place her at least in part within the Constructivist tradition. Her post-war textile designs for Heals also place her firmly within the 20th century Modern Movement. The Tate Gallery gave her a retrospective exhibition in 1983, a late recognition of the quality of her work & her significant place in art history as one of the first British artists to embark on a lifetime exploration & development of abstraction. Paule Vézelay was also included in Pallant House Gallery’s Radical Women exhibition, focusing on the works of Jessica Dismorr & her contemporaries, in early 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paule_V%C3%A9zelay
  • Estimate:
    A$400 - 600
  • Realised Price:
    *****

    Can't see the realised price? Upgrade your subscription now!

  • Category:
    Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.



© 2010-2024 Find Lots Online Pty Ltd