Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) - Belle composition Cobra

Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) - Cobra Composition

• Technique : Watercolour on paper
• Period : Circa 1970-1975
• Dimensions : 50 × 40 cm (with mat)
• Signature : Studio stamp “Marcus de Vestele – Atelier de l’artiste” on the back (original stamp visible in photo)
• Condition : Good overall. Vivid colors and perfectly preserved, marks of a period studio as normal for a work straight from the artist’s studio. No restoration.
• Presentation : Sold unframed
• Provenance : Artist’s studio (original stamp)

Description of the work
Vibrant and dynamic watercolour from Marcus de Vestele’s Cobra period, this composition expresses with primitive force the vitality and gestural freedom of the movement.

On the right dominates a large totemic figure with a sturdy body in deep blue, enhanced by bright yellow highlights, crowned by an intensely yellow circular head evoking a mask or a hybrid being, almost robotic or animal. On the left, a group of stylised silhouettes in blue, with organic and expressive forms, seem to dialogue in a rhythmically composed space.

The background, treated with broad splashes of solar yellow and earthy browns, is animated by shapes resembling vegetation or totems in nerve-wracked blue-black that reinforce the primitive and instinctive character of the scene. The line is quick, energetic and free, the primary colours (bright yellows, deep blues, intense blacks and warm ochres) applied with the boldness and spontaneity typical of Cobra aesthetics.

The fluid medium of the watercolour gives the whole a living, sculptural presence that echoes the monumental volumes of the artist’s three-dimensional work.

A representative work of Marcus de Vestele’s secret and previously unseen pictorial production, this watercolour harmonises perfectly with the heritage of the great Cobra names (Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky) while asserting a personal voice: rejection of classicism, celebration of vital energy, organic and primitive expressivity.

Artist’s Biography
Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) is one of the most distinctive figures in Belgian contemporary art. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he established himself in the 1960s as a major sculptor, internationally recognized for his monumental abstract sculptures in Carrara marble, Bardiglio, or Condroz granite.

Alongside his career as a sculptor, from 1963 to the early 1980s, he secretly developed in his studio a pictorial practice of total freedom and remarkable audacity. Deeply influenced by the Cobra movement, he drew from it a vibrant, figurative, gestural, and colorful abstraction: spontaneity of gesture, explosive colours, organic and totemic forms, radical rejection of academicism, and celebration of life in its most instinctive and vital form.

These paintings, which remained entirely unpublished during his lifetime (about 400 works discovered by his family after his death in 2024), now form a rare and powerful corpus that deeply engages with his sculptural work. Cobra compositions by Marcus de Vestele are highly sought after today by discerning collectors for their authenticity, raw energy, and their unique place in Cobra’s legacy.