Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) - Composition Cobra bleue et jaune

Marcus de Vestele – Blue and yellow Cobra composition – Watercolor on paper – circa 1975

Artist: Marcus de Vestele (1941–2024) – Belgium
Dimensions: 41 × 31 cm (overall dimensions)
Technique: Watercolor on paper
Presentation: Sold framed with care
Signature

Stamped “Marcus de Vestele / Atelier de l’artiste” (stamp visible on the back)

Condition: Good overall. Vivid colors well-preserved.

Provenance: Artist’s studio collection
Period: Circa 1975

Description
Vibrant watercolor on paper by Marcus de Vestele, dating from around 1975 and deeply imbued with the Cobra spirit. The composition is boldly structured in two contrasting horizontal registers: the upper part displays a lush, warm abstract scene in orange, yellow, and brown tones, with gestural and dynamic shapes suggesting a landscape or a phantasmagoric interior pierced by touches of blue and green. In the lower part, on a light ground, large intense and expressive blue forms explode on the left — organic, vegetative, or hybrid creatures with strong, spontaneous, swirling lines — while on the right powerful yellow fluid, curves, and luminous forms unfold.
The gesture is free and vigorous, colors vivid and contrasted (deep blue, bright yellow, orange, brown), shapes simplified and strong. This work perfectly embodies the Cobra aesthetic: raw vitality, instinctive poetry, organic imagination, and expressive humanity.

Biography
Marcus de Vestele (1941–2024), from Brussels, is a major figure of Belgian contemporary art. Internationally recognized for his monumental abstract marble sculptures (notably from Carrara and other stones), which have marked numerous public spaces since the 1980s, he also developed a secret and intense pictorial practice.

His paintings, gouaches, and watercolors, often inspired by Cobra and created in the 1970s, were never exhibited during his lifetime. Stored in a secret studio, nearly 200 painted works were discovered by his family after his death in 2024. This revelation offers a new and fascinating perspective on his creative universe, where painting and sculpture dialogue in a shared expressive, colorful, and gestural pursuit. His watercolors, long unseen, testify to a great freshness, constant inventiveness, and instinctive freedom that beautifully complements his sculpted work.