Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Un cerf-volant de rêve – Les jeux de l’été – 1979
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Surrealist mixed‑media drawing by Robert Detheux (1932–2010), Un cerf‑volant de rêve – Les jeux de l’été – 1979, on paper, 51.5 × 35 cm, signed and dated Detheux 79, Belgium, 1970–1980, in good condition.
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Description from the seller
Robert Detheux (1932-2010) – A Dream Kite – The Games of Summer – 1979
Artist: Robert Detheux (Brussels, 1932 – Tournai, 2010)
Title of the work: A Dream Kite
Series: The Games of Summer
Date: 1979
Signed and dated “Detheux 79” at the bottom right.
Technique: Painting / mixed media on paper (rose-gray wash, pastel, white highlights, drips).
The support, with a milky texture and fine grain, is worked in successive glazes. The white drips, deliberately left, transform the composition into an apparition.
Dimensions: 51.5 × 35 cm
Condition: Very good overall. Remarkable preservation of the washes, white highlights, and drips. The variations in texture and the “skin” quality of the background are entirely intentional by the artist. No visible losses or tears.
Sold unframed.
Signature: Signed and dated “Detheux 79” at the bottom right.
Provenance: Artist’s studio collection (acquired directly).
Description:
Rare and beautiful surrealist painting from 1979, belonging to the series The Games of Summer. On a pink-gray background treated like a haze or a membrane, an organic shape stands out at the top of the sheet: a kite, a bouquet, a cloud, or simply an apparition.
This mass, barely drawn, seems to float. Below, broad white drips descend like rain, a tail, or a shroud. A horizontal band on the left anchors the composition without ever narrating it.
Nothing is incidental. Detheux does not paint a kite: he reveals a summer dream, a presence at once light and grave.
The title given by the artist, A Dream Kite, says it all. The work lies in this rare tension between gentleness and vertigo, between play and vanity. The milky pink, the white smudges, and the drips create a particular density, between spectral erotism, poetry, and ritual.
It belongs to those sheets from the late 1970s where Detheux reaches an extreme tension between abstraction and appearance.
Elegant format, the intensity of presence, the rarity of the pieces in The Games of Summer series: a work characteristic of Detheux’s maturity in the late 1970s, sure to appeal to Belgian surrealist art lovers sensitive to hybrid figures, to material and to apparition.
Artist Biography
Born in Brussels in 1932 and passed away in 2010, Robert Detheux is a singular, exacting, and deeply endearing figure in Belgian art of the 20th century.
A graduate of the Saint-Luc Institute in the Fine Arts in Brussels, he taught graphic expression at the Academy of Tournai until 1996, while developing a coherent personal body of work with remarkable freedom.
His artistic trajectory unfolds in several major periods:
• From the 1950s-1960s, he asserts a powerful surrealist and expressionist language, marked by intense portraits and dreamlike compositions.
• In the 1970s, he sensually and obsessively explores the theme of the body and the female face, developing hybrid figures and very elaborate textures — a period to which this painting fully belongs.
• The 1980s-1990s see the flourishing of a more hybrid and grotesque universe, mixing erotism, black humor, and poetry.
• Finally, his 2000-2010 period, particularly sought after today, is one of total maturity: spectral portraits, apparitions, hybrid figures, and feline creatures executed with exceptional mastery.
Little exposed in his lifetime, Robert Detheux freely created an intimate, subversive, and poetic universe that belongs only to him.
Redescovered in recent years thanks to the uncovering of his substantial studio archive (nearly 1,500 works on paper), his work today enjoys a legitimate and growing enthusiasm among discerning collectors in Belgium, Spain, and Europe.
A master of drawing and material, Detheux leaves an authentic, vibrant, and timeless oeuvre that continues to surprise and appeal with its evocative power, deep humanity, and modernity.
Collecting Detheux is to enter a unique dreamlike world, populated by hybrid figures, summer dreams, and apparitions.
Seller's Story
About SR Fine Art
With nearly 28 years of experience in the art market, I am passionate about rediscovering artists’ studios and bringing their works to a wide audience on Catawiki.
I specialize in Belgian and European modern and contemporary art. My flagship collection is the studio archive of Robert Detheux (nearly 1,500 works on paper). I also offer surrealist drawings, beautiful abstract paintings from the 1950s, magnificent nude photographs by Michel Pinel, contemporary paintings, Cobra compositions, and works by Marcus de Vestele, Gundi Falk, René Mels, Eugène Eechaut and many others.
From intimate drawings to large formats, there is something for every taste and every budget. The vast majority of my auctions start at 1 € with no reserve price, giving everyone the chance to acquire unique pieces.
Every shipment is prepared with the utmost care using professional museum-quality packaging to ensure perfect condition upon arrival.
Join my growing community of satisfied clients and follow my new auctions to discover rare works from these exceptional studios.
Thank you for your trust and happy bidding!
SR Fine Art
Translated by Google TranslateRobert Detheux (1932-2010) – A Dream Kite – The Games of Summer – 1979
Artist: Robert Detheux (Brussels, 1932 – Tournai, 2010)
Title of the work: A Dream Kite
Series: The Games of Summer
Date: 1979
Signed and dated “Detheux 79” at the bottom right.
Technique: Painting / mixed media on paper (rose-gray wash, pastel, white highlights, drips).
The support, with a milky texture and fine grain, is worked in successive glazes. The white drips, deliberately left, transform the composition into an apparition.
Dimensions: 51.5 × 35 cm
Condition: Very good overall. Remarkable preservation of the washes, white highlights, and drips. The variations in texture and the “skin” quality of the background are entirely intentional by the artist. No visible losses or tears.
Sold unframed.
Signature: Signed and dated “Detheux 79” at the bottom right.
Provenance: Artist’s studio collection (acquired directly).
Description:
Rare and beautiful surrealist painting from 1979, belonging to the series The Games of Summer. On a pink-gray background treated like a haze or a membrane, an organic shape stands out at the top of the sheet: a kite, a bouquet, a cloud, or simply an apparition.
This mass, barely drawn, seems to float. Below, broad white drips descend like rain, a tail, or a shroud. A horizontal band on the left anchors the composition without ever narrating it.
Nothing is incidental. Detheux does not paint a kite: he reveals a summer dream, a presence at once light and grave.
The title given by the artist, A Dream Kite, says it all. The work lies in this rare tension between gentleness and vertigo, between play and vanity. The milky pink, the white smudges, and the drips create a particular density, between spectral erotism, poetry, and ritual.
It belongs to those sheets from the late 1970s where Detheux reaches an extreme tension between abstraction and appearance.
Elegant format, the intensity of presence, the rarity of the pieces in The Games of Summer series: a work characteristic of Detheux’s maturity in the late 1970s, sure to appeal to Belgian surrealist art lovers sensitive to hybrid figures, to material and to apparition.
Artist Biography
Born in Brussels in 1932 and passed away in 2010, Robert Detheux is a singular, exacting, and deeply endearing figure in Belgian art of the 20th century.
A graduate of the Saint-Luc Institute in the Fine Arts in Brussels, he taught graphic expression at the Academy of Tournai until 1996, while developing a coherent personal body of work with remarkable freedom.
His artistic trajectory unfolds in several major periods:
• From the 1950s-1960s, he asserts a powerful surrealist and expressionist language, marked by intense portraits and dreamlike compositions.
• In the 1970s, he sensually and obsessively explores the theme of the body and the female face, developing hybrid figures and very elaborate textures — a period to which this painting fully belongs.
• The 1980s-1990s see the flourishing of a more hybrid and grotesque universe, mixing erotism, black humor, and poetry.
• Finally, his 2000-2010 period, particularly sought after today, is one of total maturity: spectral portraits, apparitions, hybrid figures, and feline creatures executed with exceptional mastery.
Little exposed in his lifetime, Robert Detheux freely created an intimate, subversive, and poetic universe that belongs only to him.
Redescovered in recent years thanks to the uncovering of his substantial studio archive (nearly 1,500 works on paper), his work today enjoys a legitimate and growing enthusiasm among discerning collectors in Belgium, Spain, and Europe.
A master of drawing and material, Detheux leaves an authentic, vibrant, and timeless oeuvre that continues to surprise and appeal with its evocative power, deep humanity, and modernity.
Collecting Detheux is to enter a unique dreamlike world, populated by hybrid figures, summer dreams, and apparitions.
Seller's Story
About SR Fine Art
With nearly 28 years of experience in the art market, I am passionate about rediscovering artists’ studios and bringing their works to a wide audience on Catawiki.
I specialize in Belgian and European modern and contemporary art. My flagship collection is the studio archive of Robert Detheux (nearly 1,500 works on paper). I also offer surrealist drawings, beautiful abstract paintings from the 1950s, magnificent nude photographs by Michel Pinel, contemporary paintings, Cobra compositions, and works by Marcus de Vestele, Gundi Falk, René Mels, Eugène Eechaut and many others.
From intimate drawings to large formats, there is something for every taste and every budget. The vast majority of my auctions start at 1 € with no reserve price, giving everyone the chance to acquire unique pieces.
Every shipment is prepared with the utmost care using professional museum-quality packaging to ensure perfect condition upon arrival.
Join my growing community of satisfied clients and follow my new auctions to discover rare works from these exceptional studios.
Thank you for your trust and happy bidding!
SR Fine Art
Translated by Google TranslateDetails
Artist
Robert Detheux (1932-2010)
Sold with frame
No
Sold by
Owner or reseller
Edition
Original
Title of artwork
Un cerf-volant de rêve – Les jeux de l’été – 1979
Technique
Mixed media
Signature
Signed
Country of origin
Belgium
Year
1979
Condition
Good condition
Height
51.5 cm
Width
35 cm
Style
Surrealism
Period
1970-1980
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