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119
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Marc STERLING (Prylouky 1895 – Paris 1976)
See original version (French)
119
-
Marc STERLING (Prylouky 1895 – Paris 1976)
See original version (French)
Estimate €6,000 - €8,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Marc STERLING (Prylouky 1895 – Paris 1976)
Cubist Composition
Circa 1922–1923
Oil on canvas
54 x 65 cm
Signed lower right ‘M.Sterling’
On the back of the stretcher, titled, dated and with a statement of provenance: “Cubist Composition 1922–23 Eliane Sterling Collection, NEUCHATEL”
(missing sections)
Provenance:
The artist’s studio
Then passed down through the family
Marc Sterling was born in Prilouki, a small town in Ukraine. He developed an interest in artistic creation at a very early age when, at around the age of fourteen, whilst on a work placement with an icon painter, he learnt how to mix colours. He subsequently studied at the Moscow School of Fine Arts and at Vkhutemas. He left for Berlin in 1922 with the revolutionary painter Mayakovsky. Marc Sterling settled in Paris in 1923, encouraged to move to the French capital after seeing the richness of the works in the Shchukin Collection in Moscow (including Henri Matisse and Picasso, amongst others). He immediately began to associate with the avant-garde artists of the time, such as Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Jean Metzinger.
His first solo exhibition was organised by Christian Zervos at the Galerie Georges Bernheim in 1928. There, he mainly presented still lifes in which Cubism was reinterpreted through his own lens. The colours were strong and matt; the forms were lively and sinuous; he combined smooth brushwork with abundant impasto.
Marc Sterling took part in numerous group exhibitions, exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries, and was the subject of many solo exhibitions in Paris and internationally.
This Cubist still life dates from the very beginning of the painter’s time in Paris in 1923. In it, the artist deploys a Cubist language that is uniquely his own, appropriating the principles of Analytical Cubism to develop a deeply personal vision of form and space.
The geometrisation of the forms is accompanied by a deliberately restricted colour palette, allowing the artist to focus his attention on the interplay of volumes, lines and planes. Everyday objects – the alarm clock, the jug, the books, the bottle and even the flask – are subjected to a geometric construction that gives rhythm to the composition. Broken down and reassembled, they become guiding lines and masses that structure the pictorial space.
This formal rigour is counterbalanced by a remarkable diversity of materials and brushstrokes, lending the work as a whole a sensory dimension. On the geometrised surfaces, Marc Sterling varies the textural effects and techniques: here, he punctuates a smooth surface with small, round brushstrokes; there, he reveals floral motifs by scraping away the paint with the back of the brush; elsewhere, he multiplies vertical lines or enlivens the backgrounds with textures that disrupt the regularity of the planes.
The result is a vibrant work in which material, light and brushwork engage in a dialogue with geometry. As such, this still life constitutes a particularly rare example of Marc Sterling’s early work.
E.V
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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