Nicolas de Stäel. Retrospective

The use of the spatula as a pictorial instrument is one aspect that shapes, defines and personalises de Staël's work; using it to apply thick paint to the canvas creates his own exclusive workplace. Nevertheless, as this retrospective exhibition highlights, his oeuvre can be divided into two time periods - the first, beginning around 1944, is characterised by the use of dark colours to obtain a wide range of greys and the bold architectural structures that probe the intimation of space. From 1947 onwards, the chromatic colour ranges become gradually lighter (dominated by blue), and the thick and independent traces of colour start to take centre stage, with the concept of harmony presiding over his compositions. After 1950 he also relinquishes generic titles such as Composition and starts to portray a lived reality: La ville blanche (1951), Le parc de Sceaux (1953), La route d´Uzès (1953) and La cathedrale (1955).

His painting never reaches full abstraction since there is always a theme and strong figurative references, and his work encompasses certain dominant subjects that are not discernibly organised in series - landscape, figures (1953) and his own studio, developed once he settles in Antibes in 1954. de Staël's painting illustrates a new concept of contemplating colour, appreciated in works such as Parc des Princes (1952) or Agrigente (1953), reflecting the artist's experience of fulguration when considering nature on the surface of the canvas.