FÊTE ANIMÉE
Bram Bogart - 1959
Mixed media on panel - 86 cm x 26 cm.
Signed and dated mars 59 and titled on the reverse.
Executed in 1959.
Provenance: Daniel Cordier Collection
(Sotheby's Paris Auction 5 May 2021)
Bram Bogart
In the expressive paintings of Dutch born, Belgian artist Bram Bogart (1921-2012) the focus is on paint as physical matter and the medium’s material possibilities. Primarily an abstract artist, Bogart explored how the ‘script’ of a painting or the ‘non-repetitive element of rhythmical brush strokes’ could imbue abstraction with meaning. During his long career, Bogart immersed himself in the formal concerns of painting, working through numerous stylistic shifts including an early period of figuration, followed by cubist geometric abstraction, gestural abstraction and finally sensually coloured sculptural paintings with heavy accumulations of paint, for which he became widely acclaimed. Through a process of ‘building’ with paint he fused gesture with matter, to produce powerfully physical paintings with a sculptural, three-dimensional presence.
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Born Abraham van den Boogaart in Delft in 1921, Bogart first trained as a house painter, before working as a commercial sign painter for the cinema in Rotterdam. He studied art via a correspondence course and then briefly at the Fine Arts Academy in The Hague, principally as a way to avoid being conscripted into the German army. After the War in 1946 Bogart moved to France, working in Paris and the village of Le Cannet on the Côte d’Azur. Over the next 10 years, his work evolved from figuration – primarily landscapes and still lives – to more rigidly symmetrical depictions of houses and trees, which emphasised the horizontal and vertical axes of the composition. It was in his cellar studio in Le Cannet that Bogart first began to experiment with mixing water-soluble and oil-based paints, achieving an intense colouration and a chalky, matt finish which was inspired, in part, by the facades of the surrounding architecture.
By the 1950s, the figurative aspect of his work had become schematic, resolving into abstract symbols placed within defined sections of the composition. Bogart remained in Paris during the 1950s, renting a shared studio space in an old leather works on rue Santeuil, during which time his work became more gestural and expansive. In paintings such as Fête Animée (1959), a gestural script is embedded into a thickly painted, coagulated surface − the paint a register of physical activity having been pushed, drawn or pulled across the canvas.
Provenance: Daniel Cordier Collection (Sotheby's Paris Auction 5 May 2021)
Resistance fighter, spy, historian, writer, art dealer… Daniel Cordier lived a thousand lives. As a member of the Camelots du Roi, he engaged with Free France in June 1940. He was secretary to Jean Moulin from 1942 to 1943. He was named a Companion of the Resistance in 1944, and, after the war, he became a historian and art dealer. During spring of 2021, Sotheby’s was honoured to present Daniel Cordier, Collection privée, a group of over 200 lots that revealed the story behind Daniel Cordier’s collection. The sale featured some of his favourite and most prized possessions, kept in his private home until the end of his life. The painting of Bam Bogart, named Fête Animée, was one of those unique lots.
Few could lay claim to a life story as compelling as that of Daniel Cordier. His experiences as a young man bring together such seemingly disparate worlds as the French Resistance, the secret service and fine art.
IMPORTANT: This work is assessed and estimated by an expert (Sotheby's Paris).
Condition report Sotheby's Paris: The surface is slightly dirty. Traces of varnish-like paint are visible and fluoresce under UV light but are most likely original.
This work is in good original condition.
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