Michel Seuphor biography

Michel Seuphor, born in Antwerp on 10 March 1901 as Ferdinand Louis Berckelaers, adopted the pseudonym Michel Seuphor - an anagram of Orpheus - in 1917. Michel Seuphor was a multifaceted artist: art critic, art historian, painter, poet and writer. His career is distinguished by a profound contribution to the history of art. In 1921, at just twenty years of age, he founded the avant-garde magazine " Het Overzicht " in his hometown . This is the first step on his journey into the European avant-garde. Between 1922 and 1925, he traveled between Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris, coming into contact with the pioneers of artistic movements such as Cubism, Dadaism, Futurism, constructivism and neoplasticism. He collaborates with renowned artists such as Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
In 1925, he settled permanently in Paris. The city becomes the base from which he launches numerous artistic initiatives. In 1930, together with Joaquín Torres García, he founded the Cercle et Carré movement. This group, under the influence of the De Stijl current and with the membership of artists such as Mondrian, Léger, Schwitters, Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, brings together exponents of European abstractism. Michel Seuphor is also the editor of the group's newspaper, significantly contributing to the dissemination of abstract art.
Michel Seuphor's work as an artist is characterized by the exclusive use of paper, pen and ink drawings of eastern India. He creates abstract forms through the use of closely spaced parallel lines, playing with contrasts of light and dark to evoke inner truths.
In 1931, Michel Seuphor temporarily moved away from Paris for health reasons, but returned in 1938. In this period, organized important exhibitions such as "Les Premiers Maîtres de l'Art Abstrait" in 1949, "50 ans d'Art Abstrait" in 1958, and "Construction and Geometry Painting" in 1959. In particular, he curated a major retrospective on Mondrian at the Musée de l'Orangerie also in 1959.
In 1954, Michel Seuphor acquired French citizenship. From this moment, his attention focuses more on the history of art, in particular on the abstract art of the twentieth century. He produces fundamental texts such as "L'Art abstrait, ses origines, ses premiers maîtres" (1949), the "Dictionnaire de la Peinture abstraite" (1957) and "Sculpture de ce siècle" (1959). In 1971, he began publishing a history of abstract art in five volumes, consolidating his role as an art historian and theorist.
Michel Seuphor passed away in Paris on 12 February 1999, leaving an immense legacy in the world of art, especially in abstract art, through his art, his publications and his collaborations with other great artists of his time.