Reserved
Suzanne van Damme
(1901 - 1986)
Femme Surréaliste, c. 1947
Reserved
Suzanne van Damme (1901 - 1986)
Size:
Height – 34cm
Width – 26cm
Signed oil on panel
Suzanne van Damme was a Belgian post-impressionist painter who evolved into surrealism in the 1940s. She was trained at the Academies of Brussels and Ghent and in Studio L’Effort in Brussels. During her time in Ostende she was influenced by James Ensor, who became a mentor. She painted his portrait in 1925. Ensor painted her portrait in 1938.
In the early 1930’s, Van Damme moved to Paris where she met the italian painter and poet Bruno Capacci, who became her husband. Van Damme spent a long time in Paris, southern France, London and Florence. In 1941 she came into contact with the Surrealists and participated in the 1947 International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris organized by Breton and Duchamp. Her works from the 1940s clearly reference Picasso, De Chirico, Seligmann and also Toyen. Many of her early surrealist works were recorded in a series of black and white photographs made by Breton.
She exhibited at the Venice Bienniale in 1935, 1954 and 1962 and at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1953. When she later moved to Florence, she began creating more abstract works before developing a highly personal language charged with signs and symbols. Her works then became arrays of ideograms made of mini-paintings with both abstract and figurative elements.
Based in Florence during the 1950’s and the 1960’s Suzanne Van Damme exhibited regularly in the USA : Chicago (Marshall Field Gallery 1959), New York (Thibault Gallery on Madison Avenue 1961), Los Angeles, Baltimore, Dallas (Calhoun Gallery 1961), Denver (Saks Gallery 1969) etc..
