René Mels ( 1909-1977 ) - Composition abstraite circa 1958

René Mels (1909–1977) Belgium

Title: Abstract composition (late 1950s)
Technique: Oil on paper
Dimensions: 65 × 50 cm
Signature: Signed at the bottom right
the late 1950s
Condition: Good overall condition, small scratches on the border — a frame would improve the overall appearance.

Framework: Unframed sale

Provenance: artist's family

Description of the work

This superb oil on paper testifies to René Mels's full artistic maturity in the second half of the 1950s.

The artist deploys a lyrical and structured abstraction, where matter, color, and light dialogue with rare intensity.

The composition, of great freedom, evokes through its tension and structure certain works by Bram van Velde, while maintaining the rigor and sensitivity characteristic of Mels. The forms intertwine, the colored masses respond to each other in a subtle harmony of browns, ochres, and bluish grays. The brushstroke, broad and energetic, gives the whole an almost architectural vibrancy.

This work is distinguished by its plastic strength and internal balance, where emotion arises from the encounter between spontaneity and structure. It perfectly illustrates the period when Mels, after leaving figuration, reaches an abstraction of great poetic depth.

Artistic context

In the late 1950s, René Mels established himself as one of the most sensitive representatives of post-war Belgian abstraction. Close in spirit to the research of Bram and Geer van Velde, he shares this quest for a liberated pictorial space, where color becomes substance and form, inner resonance.
His work is a continuation of the Art Abstrait movement, of which he was an active member, while maintaining a personal dimension imbued with lyricism and restraint. This piece is an exemplary expression of that: a dialogue between rigor and emotion, between silence and intensity.

Biography of René Mels (1909–1977)

Born in Herent-lez-Louvain, René studied at the Leuven Academy, then in Brussels, before perfecting his craft at La Cambre. He was a member of the Young Belgian Painting and the Abstract Art group, actively contributing to the modernization of the post-war art scene.

His work, initially expressionist, evolved into luminous and structured abstraction, where line, color, and light engage in dialogue with rare intensity. René Mels passed away in 1977 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, leaving behind a coherent and deeply poetic body of work, marked by the pursuit of a balance between emotion and construction.

An abstract composition of great quality, where René Mels combines the power of gesture, chromatic subtlety, and inner depth — a major testament to his abstract period in the late 1950s. On the border — a frame would complete the piece. Frame: Sold unframed. Provenance: Artist's family.