Abstract Composition By Stephen Gilbert (andre Bloc - Ossip Zadkine - Cobra Movement 20th Century)

Watercolors of abstract compositions, signed Stephen Gilbert. Dimensions outside frame: 30 x 24cm Others by the same artist are also visible on this site, including one from the same series. Born in 1910 and died in 2007, Stephen Gilbert was one of the few British artists to fully embrace the avant-garde movement in Paris in the 1950s. He studied architecture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London between 1929 and 1932, where he became friends with Roger Hilton. He won a scholarship to the Slade School at the end of his first year, and principal Henry Tonks encouraged him to start painting from 1930. His early painting was marked by the influence of Cézanne . He also met the sculptor Jocelyn Chewett at the Slade School, whom he married in 1935. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1936, and had his first solo exhibition in London at the Wertheim Galery in 1938. In 1937, he settled in Paris, where his wife studied with Ossip Zadkine, and left before the Second World War. Dismissed from military service for medical reasons, he spent the war in Ireland. His work is inspired by Masson, and the reading of Jung, Nietzche and Jacob Bohme, with fantastical creatures and plants painted in bright colors. He returned to Paris in 1946 after the birth of his daughter Frances. He exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendants in Paris in 1948, where he attracted the attention of the Danish artist Asger Joirn, who led him to join the group of avant-garde artists CoBrA. He is, with William Gear, one of the only members of British origin. He participated in the first edition of the group's journal, and was involved in the two major exhibitions. A French art critic then described him as "the most French of English sculptors and one of the most European among artists." After the CoBrA period, his pictorial approach became more abstract, but he remained in contact with Pierre Alechinsky after the dissolution of the movement. He exhibited several times at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. In the 1950s, he focused on three-dimensional works and architectural forms, created from aluminum sheets. He joined André Bloc's Espace Group in 1954, and exhibited at the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture. He also became one of the founders of the Néovision group, and worked with the experimental architect Peter Stead. His work then evolved towards more curvilinear forms, which he exhibited at the Drian Galleries in London in 1961. He received a prize from the Caoulste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1962.