Henryk BERLEWI (1894-1967) - Lot 65

Henryk BERLEWI (1894-1967) Homage to Brancusi, circa 1950-1960 Oil on canvas 47x56.5 cm Rousseurs. The faded painting shows Berlewi's signature on one edge of the canvas. On the reverse of the stretcher, the stamp of the sale of the Atelier Berlewi by the Etude Chapelle Perrin Fromantin, Versailles, February 17, 1974. The composition of our painting is reminiscent of Brancusi's famous sculptures: "The Endless Column", "The Bird in Space", the zigzag base... Now icons of modern sculpture. Henryk Berlewi, a Polish artist and member of the Ecole de Paris from the 1920s onwards, is the creator of the concept of "Mécano-Facture", the reduction of colors and planes in favor of two-dimensionality, the mechanization of pictoriality, often seen as the herald of optical art. He began his work by befriending Theo van Doesburg, founder of the De Stijl movement, with whom he took part in international conferences, notably to promote Polish Constructivism. He settled permanently in Paris in 1921, giving up painting for a while in favor of art criticism. He resumed painting in 1947, however, and set up his studio at 11 Impasse Ronsin in Paris. He resumed his work on Mécano-facture in the 1950s, presenting it at the Galerie Denise René in Paris in 1957 as part of an exhibition devoted to the pioneers of Polish abstract art. His connection with Constantin Brancusi was close, as he knew the latter through Van Doesburg, in whose magazine Brancusi had published (De Stijl). As a result, Brancusi and Berlewi's studios were located in the same building at 11 Impasse Ronsin, Montparnasse, for ten years, from 1947 to 1957. In 1956, Brancusi donated everything in his studio to the French state for the Musée National d'Art Moderne, on the day of his death. Berlewi, an art critic of the time, said: "The Brancusi studio must not be destroyed". But after Brancusi's death in 1957, with the enlargement of the Necker hospital, the studio had to be emptied and everything moved to the Musée d'Art Moderne in the Palais de Tokyo, later the Centre Pompidou. Provenance Sale of the Atelier Henryk Berlewi, Hôtel des Chevau-Légers, Versailles, February 17, 1974, Chapelle - Fromantin - Perrin Auction House