Art Cologne

Dear Friends of the gallery,

We are delighted to welcome you back to our stand at Art Cologne, whose theme this year is: Paris 1950, Auguste Herbin and his circle

In the 1950s, Auguste Herbin extended his influence through the "Salon des Réalités Nouvelles," reaching numerous young French and international artists. We have been collecting his works for almost 40 years, allowing us to build a collection that provides a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre and has enabled us to organize several retrospective exhibitions in various institutions. Among Herbin's influential circle were artists such as Jean Dewasne, whose work is currently being rediscovered in our museums (Musée départemental Matisse, Musée de Cambrai, Musée du LAAC in Dunkirk), Victor Vasarely, whose retrospective is currently on display at the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, as well as Jo Delahaut from Belgium, Günter Fruhtrunk from Germany, Olle Baertling from Sweden, and others whom you can discover at our booth. The gallery holds a significant collection of works by most of these artists, which has allowed us to mount several solo exhibitions.

From the 1920s onwards, Herbin was part of Léonce Rosenberg's "L'Effort Moderne" gallery, alongside Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian, with whom he exhibited regularly. Serge Lemoine, former director of the Musée d'Orsay, has consistently championed Herbin's work through numerous writings, including the article in our catalogue, a short excerpt of which follows:

"Auguste Herbin, let us briefly recall, began his career as a painter at the beginning of the century with pointillism. He was an original Fauvist artist. From 1910, he was a prominent and recognized figure in Cubism, which turned towards abstraction in 1919. His role as a driving force was decisive within the Abstraction-Création association, which he founded in 1931 with Georges Vontergerloo."

But our contemporary artists will not be left out, as we will be offering new works by Jean-François Dubreuil, Nicholas Bodde, Claude Pasquer, Charles and Sigurd Rompza.

Outside the gallery walls, don't miss the exhibition dedicated to Jean Dewasne "Constructed Colour. From Antisculpture to Architecture" at the Matisse Museum in Cateau-Cambrésis until June 9th and the Vasarely retrospective "The Rediscovery of the Painter" at the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich until May 14th, 2014.