Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) - Belle composition Cobra - 1972

Marcus de Vestele (1941-2024) – Cobra Composition
Signed and dated 1972

Details :
• Technique : Watercolor on paper
• Period : 1972
• Dimensions : 40 × 29 cm

• Signature : Signed and dated “Marcus 72” at bottom right. Studio stamp “Marcus de Vestele – Atelier de l’artiste” on the back (original stamp visible in photo)

• Condition : Good overall. Vivid colors perfectly preserved, normal period workshop marks for a piece straight from the studio. No restorations.

• Presentation : Sold unframed
• Provenance : Artist’s studio (original stamp)

Description of the work
Powerful and expressive watercolor from Marcus de Vestele’s Cobra period, dated 1972. The composition centers around a yellow central structure resembling a bench or pedestal, from which two dynamic and gestural anthropomorphic figures unfold. Executed in tones of deep red-brown with broad swirling, expressive brushstrokes, they are heightened by pure whites that create luminous accents and breathing space, evoking heads or masks.

The background is worked with force and contrast: a wide vertical yellow band on the left, a vivid blue on the edge, a strong organic black at the top, and orange trails at the bottom, creating a theatrical space and immediate visual tension.

The gesture is fast, free, and vigorous, typical of the Cobra spirit: spontaneity of line, raw life energy, and total expressive freedom. Primary, contrasting colors (red, yellow, blue, black, orange) generate a strong presence and great vitality.

This watercolor has an almost narrative dimension and a sculptural strength that echoes the monumental volumes of the artist’s three-dimensional works.

This work represents the secret, previously unrevealed pictorial production of Marcus de Vestele; it fits perfectly within the Cobra movement’s heritage while asserting a strong personal voice: rejection of academe, celebration of instinctive life and primitive forms.

Artist 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 of Brussels, he established himself in the 1960s as a major sculptor, internationally recognized for his monumental abstract marble sculptures in Carrara, Bardiglio, or Condroz granite.

Alongside his career as a sculptor, from 1963 to the early 1980s, he privately, in the absolute secrecy of his studio, developed 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 colors, organic and totemic forms, radical rejection of academia, and celebration of life in its most instinctive and vital form.

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