René Mels (1909-1977) - Composition abstraite - 1975

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Catalog entry for the work

Artist: René Mels (1909–1977) Belgian School

Abstract Composition

Date : 1975

Technique: Colored ink and washes on paper

Dimensions: 41.5 cm × 31.5 cm

Signature: Signed and dated at the bottom right 'R. Mels, 75'

Condition: Very good condition

Framing: Sold unframed

Provenance: artist's family

Description of the work

Created in 1975, this abstract composition belongs to the late, fully mastered period of René Mels' graphic oeuvre. The surface of the paper is animated by an energetic superposition of black ink strokes, nervous and incisive, that traverse the composition with great gestural freedom. These lines cross, interweave, and generate a dense rhythmic fabric, structuring the space without ever enclosing it.

Colored washes, dominated by bluish, greenish, pinkish, and ochre tones, play an active role in shaping the image. Far from a simple background, they continually dialogue with the line, creating zones of tension and breathing space. The composition, broadly horizontal, evokes a continuous flow, almost organic or landscape-like, without an explicit figurative reference. The light emanates from the paper’s whiteness, enhancing the sense of depth and movement.
The whole thing reveals a subtle balance between the spontaneity of the gesture and formal control. Each intervention seems to respond to the one before it, in a progression where the drawing retains its full expressive charge and vitality.

Artistic context
In the mid-1970s, René Mels deepened a research focused on the autonomy of the line and gesture. After periods marked by a more constructed and architectural abstraction, he developed a freer graphic language, in which the line becomes energy, trajectory, and breath.
This 1975 work fully illustrates this advanced phase of the artist's career. The drawing is no longer merely preparatory; it becomes the very site of the plastic thinking. The color, used with restraint and precision, reinforces the internal dynamism of the composition without altering its structural readability. This period heralds the artist's very latest works, characterized by formal spareness and heightened expressive intensity.

Biography of René Mels (1909–1977)
René Mels was a major figure in Belgian painting and engraving of the 20th century. Born in Herent-lez-Louvain, he trained at the Academy of Leuven, then at Brussels, before pursuing his teaching at La Cambre. His work, initially marked by expressionism, gradually evolved toward structured abstraction, then toward a language increasingly centered on line, rhythm and matter.
Active member of the Young Belgian Painting and the group Art Abstrait, he fully participated in the renewal of the Belgian post-war art scene. His approach, based on a constant tension between constructive rigor and gestural freedom, gives his work remarkable coherence and intensity. René Mels passed away in 1977 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, leaving a late body of work of great poetic and graphic strength.