Composition
Linocut, 1921, Museum Felix de Boeck pg. 200; from a small edition. 5 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. Initialed and dated in the block, lower right. This is a fine impression printed on thin cream colored paper. The margins are wide and probably full as issued. The condition is fine. This is a superb example of Belgian avant garde printmaking. There's a stamp on the verso which says "De Distel, Emiel Maeyens, Antwerpen." De Distel (The Thistle) is is the name of a shop in Antwerp where Émile Maeyens sold artists supplies for students at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. It was also in this shop that the avant garde art circle, "Kring Moderne Kunst" ('Circle of Modern Art'), gathered from its founding on September 14, 1918. Maeyens regularly advertised in in the modernist periodical "Het Overzicht" in which Karel Maes and Josef Peeters published their prints. Maeyens collected and sold proofs when they could be located. Maes is one of the preeminent Belgian modernists and was closely associated with Jozef Peeters, Pierre-Louis Flouquet, Rene Magritte and Victor Servranckx, among others. This work is from his best period and his paintings of this era also focus on geometric abstraction. Most of his linoleum cuts were published in journals in the 1920s in black and white only. From 1922 onward, Maes began to design furniture, carpets, and posters. There's also the collectors stamp of Emile Maeyens in blue in the lower left corner (Lugt 4178). This print was ultimately published in Herleving, year 3, No. 2 (Nov 1922). (There's a colored pencil signature "Karel Maes" on the verso but we are uncertain about the authenticity of it.)
$1,800