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Guillaume Corneille

"I can draw what I write but can not write what I draw."

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Notes of biography

Corneille Guillaume van Beverloo, known as Corneille, is born in Liege (Belgium) in 1922. He studies drawing in Rijksakademie of Amsterdam (1940-1943). In the 40’s, Corneille is in search of a “new creativity”; in a very free way, he mainly paints birds and gardens. His first personal exhibition is organized in 1946 in Paris, where he settles definitively in 1950.
In 1948, Corneille is cofounder of Reflex and Cobra groups (with the painters Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Constant and two Belgian poets, Christian Dotremont and Joseph Noiret). Together, they sign a short text, written by Jorn and Dotremont, which they entitle “the cause was heard”, ironic reference to proclamation of Surrealism, “the cause is heard”. There, they advance an experimental art, in reaction against any esthetism and any specialization, in order to express a controversy. Corneille’s style strikes by his forms which point out to children naive drawings, without however being unaware of a certain violence.
From 1950 and until 1958, he travels a lot (Africa, Americas, the Antilles) and creates abstract and coloured landscapes which are like the traces of his own peregrinations. In 1962, he has his first exhibition in New York. At the beginning of the Sixties, Corneille returns to a “New Figuration”. Then the artist paints, carries out an important graphic work, creates sculptures and ceramics objects, extremely coloured works whose forms are generally underlined by black rings. His art evokes a personal and imaginary world, a populated universe of flowers, birds and women. From 1980 to 1987, Corneille takes part in many retrospectives devoted to the Cobra movement in France and abroad.
Corneille died in September 2010, he was 88 years old.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Corneille », E. Jaeger, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1956
  • « Corneille », J.C. Lambert, Musée de Poche, Paris, 1960
  • « Restrospective Corneille », Musée des Beaux-Arts, Gand, 1974
  • « Cobra : un art libre », Jean-Clarence Lambert, Ed. Chêne/Hachette, Paris, 1983
  • « Corneille », Michel Ragon, in revue Cimaise n°191, 1987
  • « Corneille - L'oeil de l'été », Jean-Clarence Lambert, Ed. Galilée, 1989
  • « Corneille - Peintures et gouaches », M. Paquet, Ed. L'Autre Musée/La Différence, 1989
  • « Corneille », C.-M. Cluny, La Différence, Paris 1992
  • « Corneille is back », Ed. Museum of Fine Art de Budapest, 2002
  • « Corneille », Pierre Restany, Ed. Cercle d'Art, 2003
To read from the artist :
  • « Journal de la tour », Ed. Galilée, Paris, 1981
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.

More :


Art movements

+ COBRA / 1948-1952 / Christian Dotremont, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover