​MARCEL-LOUIS BAUGNIET
​Belgian avant-garde artist
​Member of "7 Arts" and "L' Assaut"

Marcel-Louis Baugniet  (Liège 1896 -  Brussels 1995) in 1958

"Decor for a theatre play" 1921, gouache (Sold)
Painted in Paris when Baugniet attended  the "La Grande Chaumière" academy

Baugniet and his wife ballet dancer Akarova in 1923

Decor and costume for Akarova for Debussy's "Gollywogg's cake-walk", ca 1923
Private collection - collection CIVA Brussels

"Decor for the play L'Angoisse des Machines" 1926, watercolour, 14 x 25 cm
The play written by italian futurist Ruggero Vasari was held at the "Art & Action" theater
directed by actress Louise Lara, mother of film director Claude Autant-Lara.
​Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

Poster for the play "L'Angoisse des Machines" by R. Vasari, 1926

"Project" 1922, oil & collage (Sold)

"Organs - Orgues"​ 1929, oil on panel (Sold)

"Constructivist composition" ​1930, oil on panel (Sold)

"Citations musicales" 1931, watercolour, 62 x 41,5 cm
Available for sale, call 02 539.23.09 or mail to group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

8-points manifest from 1927 by Baugniet and his associate dutch architect Van Tonderen

"Huit" 1931, gouache, 35,5 x 26,5 cm 
​Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail to group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

"Squared composition" (walking figure) 1956, mixed media, 45 x 33 cm
​Available

 "St-Michael defeating the dragon" 1979, gouache, 39 x 29 cm
​Available 

"Construction verte au cercle rouge" ​1980, gouache, 65 x 48 cm
Exhibited at the Museum of Liège, 2001. Illustration in the book, p. 71
​Available

"Construction rouge au carré jaune" 1984, oil painting, 50 x 34 cm
Exhibition : BAM museum Mons, 2014 "Belgian geometric abstractions from 1945 to now"
​Illustration in the book p. 39
Available

"Construction anthropomorphe" 1985, gouache, 40 x 30 cm
​Available

Jeannine Lenaerts visiting the artist at his Ixelles apartment, 1993

"Portrait of Mrs Hirschhorn" 1924, Oil on canvas, 84 x 69 cm
​Private collection

Baugniet visiting the Vladimir Nemuchin exhibition at Group 2 Gallery in 1993.
​Standing are the famous collectors of "Soviet non-conformist art" Mr and Mrs Bar-Gera from Cologne, Germany.

Ixelles Mayor Yves de Jonghe d'Ardoye opening the Baugniet exhibition at Group 2 Gallery, 1994

 ​Mr Philippe Roberts-Jones, Honorary Director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium and the artist at Group 2 Gallery, 1994

Marcel-Louis Baugniet was born in Liège in 1896.  He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels from 1915 to 1918, where he met a.o. ​Magritte, Flouquet and Delvaux. His first works were influenced by the symbolists Klimt and Khnopff. In 1921 he studied at the "La Grande Chaumière" Academy in Paris, where he met a.o. Zadkine and the Lurçat brothers and where he discovered the russian constructivists Malevitch and Lissitzky. Baugniet admired most of all Czech artist Frantisek Kupka. Back in Brusels, he joined in 1923 the "7 Arts" avant-garde magazine founded by painters Flouquet and Karel Maes, the Bourgeois brothers (architect and poet) and composer Georges Monnier. Baugniet published many articles and manifests in this magazine, whereas his art gradually moved from cubism to geometric abstraction. In 1923 Baugniet met the ballet dancer Marguerite Acarin, who became his wife and whose name he changed into Akarova. In 1925 Baugniet participated at the "Decorative arts" exhibition in Paris, where he discovered the russian pavillion with works by Popova, Tatlin, Maïakowski, Lebedev and Stepanova. Much impressed, he decided to study the russian language. In 1927 Baugniet formed with dutch architect Van Tonderen a company called "Modern Interior". Together they signed a manifest in eight parts, a.o. "Le beau c'est l'utile" (The beautiful should be useful as well), "La fonction crée la forme" (The function creates the form) and "We preach the triumph of the machine".

 

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