BERNARD DESFRERE ‘Etendard’ COBRA movement 1974, large painting / wall relief sculpture

...SOLD...

Bernard Desfrère, ‘étendard' (1974).

Painting/mural sculpture in relief, wood, polyurethane and acrylic - COBRA movement.

This work, halfway between sculpture and painting, stands out for its originality and technical mastery. Inspired by the COBRA movement, it evokes the spirit of artists such as Karel Appel. Its imposing size and meticulous execution make it a significant work by Bernard Desfrère.

Reproduced full-page (p. 131) in the Actuel 20 catalogue, which highlights Liège's great twentieth-century painters, ‘étendard' was also exhibited at the Azur art gallery, as the accompanying documents show.

Now over 50 years old, this work retains a contemporary and dynamic spirit, fitting perfectly into a modern interior. What's more, the resurgence of interest in the artist following the recent dispersal of the family collection makes this a piece with interesting value potential.

Provenance: Artist's studio.

Biography: Bernard Desfrere

Bernard Desfrere (1928 Chimay - 2005 Esneux) was a painter linked to the Cobra movement.

He graduated from the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Liège (Adrien Dupagne - Robert Crommelynck studio) and La Cambre, école Supérieure d'architecture et des arts décoratifs de Bruxelles, Paul Delvaux studio. Government master's scholarship to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège.

Initially a decorator and then an advertising executive, he created the logos for the Jupiler brewery. From 1963 to 1976, he taught graphic art at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Liège. From 1977 to 1993, he taught painting at the final studio of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Liège. From 1961 to 1993, he taught painting and screen printing at the Maison de la Culture ‘Le Château' in Liège (Sclessin).

He has taken part in numerous exhibitions and fairs in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. His works can be found in public and private collections.

Jacques Parisse wrote in 1975: ‘Bernard Desfrère's painting is action, gesture, energy. The artist connects with colour and projects what he has worked out into the paste. Each canvas is a new problem. Desfrère has the rare courage to be always new, whereas so many other artists, under the pretext of ‘Style', present the eternal rehash of the same subject. There is an intense viscerality that emanates from his painting, and if his easel bears the exergue: Rien n'est plus laid que le beau (Nothing is uglier than beauty), it is easy to understand that the man attaches paramount importance to the power of emotions and their veracity. From his tubes will come tumult or calm, clamour or silence, but never insignificance. It's a kind of permanent creative insurrection', E. Lemaire.

Awards:

1947 Prix Marie (easel painting)

1948 Jonissen Buttinx Prize

1949 Prix Watteau (easel painting)

1950 Grande Médaille en Vermeil for drawing and monumental painting

1950 Watteau Prize (monumental painting)

1957 Winner of the Palais des Congrès poster competition.

Biobliography: ACTUEL XX - La peinture à Liège au XXème siècle - Jacques Parisse, Pierre Mardaga éditeur 1975, page 125, 130, 131.