Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955)
A leading figure in post-war abstract art, Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin whose work spanned around a dozen years. He quickly abandoned figurative painting in favour of abstract compositions where the texture of the paint material became a characteristic feature of his work with its superimposed layers of colour and impasto.
A passionate and prolific artist, he was to say about his art: "All my life I had a need to think painting, to see pictures, to paint to help me live, to liberate myself from my thoughts, from all feelings, from all the anxieties for which painting became my only solution."
