MARC MENDELSON
An artist and a gentleman
Founding member of "La Jeune Peinture Belge" (1945-48)
An artist and a gentleman
Founding member of "La Jeune Peinture Belge" (1945-48)
Marc Mendelson (London 1915 - Brussels 2013)
A major figure of the Belgian post-war art scene
Founding member of "La Jeune Peinture Belge" (Young Belgian Painters 1945-48).
Works in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Scroll down for Mendelson's biography
A major figure of the Belgian post-war art scene
Founding member of "La Jeune Peinture Belge" (Young Belgian Painters 1945-48).
Works in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Scroll down for Mendelson's biography
"Still life with dish - Nature morte au plat" 1948
Oil on canvas, 130 x 166 cm
Exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Venice Biennale 1948, The Hague museum 1949,
"Jeune Peinture Belge" Cologne 1950, Ostend museum 1995
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
Oil on canvas, 130 x 166 cm
Exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Venice Biennale 1948, The Hague museum 1949,
"Jeune Peinture Belge" Cologne 1950, Ostend museum 1995
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
The artist in his atelier at the Chaussée de Charleroi in Brussels, 1948.
Photo by Roland d'Ursel
Photo by Roland d'Ursel
"Still life with fruit" 1946, oil on canvas, 81 x 98 cm
Collection Ostend museum, Belgium
Collection Ostend museum, Belgium
"Still life on blue background" 1948, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
This fine still life has been painted shortly before the artist moved to abstraction in the early 1950's.
SOLD
This fine still life has been painted shortly before the artist moved to abstraction in the early 1950's.
SOLD
Exhibition of Rudolf Meerbergen, Marc Mendelson & Jan Cox.
Salle Lamorinière, Meir, Antwerp, 1943
In the background a small painting of a jug by Mendelson and his iconic "Nude in front of a cupboard", 1943
Robert Giron, director of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels invited the trio to exhibit at the PBA.
Salle Lamorinière, Meir, Antwerp, 1943
In the background a small painting of a jug by Mendelson and his iconic "Nude in front of a cupboard", 1943
Robert Giron, director of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels invited the trio to exhibit at the PBA.
"Still life with shells and (the same) jug" 1943, oil on canvas, 70 x 88 cm, monogram "M" top right
This "metaphysical" still life was exhibited in Buenos Aires (inscribed at the back) in 1947
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
This "metaphysical" still life was exhibited in Buenos Aires (inscribed at the back) in 1947
Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]
"My brushes - Mes pinceaux" 1944, oil on canvas
Sold. Private collection, London
Sold. Private collection, London
"The lantern" 1946, Oil on canvas
SOLD
SOLD
"Reclining nude" 1946, Oil on canvas
Exhibited at the "Salon de Mai", Paris, 1947
SOLD
Exhibited at the "Salon de Mai", Paris, 1947
SOLD
Marc Mendelson at Group 2 Gallery in 2003
"Lying Nude" 1946, ink drawing, 36,5 x 45 cm
Available
Available
"Still life with lemons" 1947, Oil on canvas
Sold. Private collection, London
Sold. Private collection, London
"Portrait of Jan Cox" 1948, Pencil drawing
Available
Available
"Self portrait" 1951, Ink drawing
SOLD
SOLD
"Deadly nightshade" 1952, oil on canvas, 155 x 180 cm
Collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
"Black, white & yellow" 1952, oil on canvas, 180 x 63,5 cm
Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, New York
Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, New York
"Dazzling divination - Divination fulgurante" 1955, Oil on canvas
Sold. Collection of KBC Bank
Sold. Collection of KBC Bank
"The tenuous feeding on black - Le ténu se nourrissant de noir" 1956, Oil on canvas
Exhibitions : Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, 1958 ; Joven Pintura Belga, Madrid, 1962 ;
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh Museum of Art, 1964-65
SOLD
Exhibitions : Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, 1958 ; Joven Pintura Belga, Madrid, 1962 ;
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh Museum of Art, 1964-65
SOLD
"Fetish landscape" 1961, Oil on canvas
SOLD
SOLD
"Red magma" 1965, Oil on canvas
SOLD
SOLD
"Prehistoric vegetation" 1962, oil on canvas
SOLD
SOLD
Mendelson in his beloved Catalonia, 2000
Marc Mendelson at his 85th birthday tribute exhibition in Group 2 Gallery, 2000
Monumental mural "Happy Metro to You" at the Brussels underground station "Park", 1974
Marc Mendelson and Odette Collon, two members of the "Young Belgian Painters"
at Group 2 Gallery in front of a work by fellow member Gaston Bertrand
at Group 2 Gallery in front of a work by fellow member Gaston Bertrand
Marc Mendelson was born in London in 1915 from a belgian father and an english mother. The family moved to Antwerp in 1922. He studied at the Antwerp Fine Arts Academy from 1934 to 1939. In 1943 Robert Giron visited an exhibition of Mendelson and fellow artists Rudolf Meerbergen and Jan Cox in Galerie Lamorinière in Antwerp and invited the trio to exhibit at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Mendelson excelled in painting portraits and metaphysical still lifes reminiscent of the "magical realism" of Giorgio de Chirico. The same year Mendelson was arrested and jailed by the germans for several months. After his liberation with the help of his friend Jan Cox, Mendelson became a founding member in 1945 of the avant-garde group "Jeune Peinture Belge" - "Young Belgian Painters" promoted by Robert Delevoy, director of Galerie Apollo and by art mecenas René Lust. Up to 1948 the JPB managed to organize exhibitions in Brussels, Paris, The Hague, Stockholm, Zurich, Milan, Oxford and even in Cairo and Alexandria ! Mendelson subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennial in 1948 and 1956, the São Paulo Biennial in 1951 and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1952. He particpated at the Younger European Painters: A Selection (1953–54) at the Guggenheim Museum. The same year he was commissioned to produce murals for the Ostend Kursaal, and, with fellow Jeune Peinture Belge member Louis Van Lint, murals for the Canterbury restaurant in Brussels. In 1951 Mendelson became a Professor at the "École nationale supérieure d’architecture et des arts décoratifs La Cambre" in Brussels. He discovered Palamos in Catalonia in 1953 and spent henceforth several months a year in his beloved Costa Brava. During the 1950's Mendelson’s work became increasingly abstract. In the early 1960's he experimented with surface variations and matierism - Mendelson preferred the term "relief paintings" -, the method of including materials such as sand, mud, or cement into thick impasto and applying it to the canvas, a technique also used by Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tàpies. In the mid 1960's Mendelson returned to figuration by painting humanoid figures with a touch of english humour. In 1974 he was commissionned to make a monumental work "Happy Metro to You" at the underground station "Park" in Brussels. Major Retrospectives of his work were held at the Ostend Museum of Modern Art in 1995 and at the Royal Fine Arts Museum of Belgium in Brussels in 2010. In 2000 a tribute exhibition was held at Group 2 Gallery on the occasion of his 85th birthday. Mendelson passed away in Brussels in 2013 at the age of 97.
Early years and the making of an abstract and material painter
Marc Mendelson was born in London in 1915 and died in Brussels in 2013. He grew up in Antwerp and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1934 to 1939. Early on, he developed a dual orientation: still life and portraiture on the one hand, and the constructive organisation of form and space on the other. This dual-track exploration prepared his shift toward abstraction and explains the poetic clarity of his figurative years, in which object and surface were increasingly reduced to structural tensions.
In 1943, Mendelson exhibited with Rudolf Meerbergen and Jan Cox at Galerie Lamorinière in Antwerp. The exhibition caught the attention of Robert Giron, director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, who invited the trio to exhibit at the museum in Brussels. Shortly afterwards, Mendelson was arrested by the German occupier and imprisoned for several months. Upon his release, aided partly by the intervention of Jan Cox, he chose decisively for a contemporary visual language in which observation, construction and experimentation reinforce one another, a direction that would shape his later development.
In 1945, Mendelson became one of the founding members of La Jeune Peinture Belge. Promoted by Robert Delevoy, director of Galerie Apollo, and patron René Lust, the group positioned the Belgian scene within an international network and opened doors to major biennials and museums. What distinguishes Mendelson throughout his career is his consistent treatment of the painting as a constructed space, whether in a metaphysical still life, a portrait or an abstract composition that replaces the visible world with rhythm and proportion.
In 1943, Mendelson exhibited with Rudolf Meerbergen and Jan Cox at Galerie Lamorinière in Antwerp. The exhibition caught the attention of Robert Giron, director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, who invited the trio to exhibit at the museum in Brussels. Shortly afterwards, Mendelson was arrested by the German occupier and imprisoned for several months. Upon his release, aided partly by the intervention of Jan Cox, he chose decisively for a contemporary visual language in which observation, construction and experimentation reinforce one another, a direction that would shape his later development.
In 1945, Mendelson became one of the founding members of La Jeune Peinture Belge. Promoted by Robert Delevoy, director of Galerie Apollo, and patron René Lust, the group positioned the Belgian scene within an international network and opened doors to major biennials and museums. What distinguishes Mendelson throughout his career is his consistent treatment of the painting as a constructed space, whether in a metaphysical still life, a portrait or an abstract composition that replaces the visible world with rhythm and proportion.
From construction to relief
From the late 1940s onward, Mendelson oscillated between constructed figuration and a growing trust in the surface. Monumental still lifes such as “Still Life with Bowl” (1948) show how forms become fields of tension, with colour and rhythm as structural elements determining the pace of looking. The move toward non-figuration in the early 1950s is not a radical break but a consistent reduction of principles already present in his figurative work, which makes his oeuvre appear as one continuous search.
Around 1951, his work evolved into abstract series in which long vertical and horizontal segments replace the visible world. Works such as “Black, white & yellow” and “Deadly nightshade” demonstrate how colour, proportion and direction forge an architecture of the pictorial plane. The painting becomes a clear and musical grid that guides the gaze and introduces timing into the act of looking, with tensions between density and breathing space that reveal themselves fully only through slow viewing.
At the beginning of the 1960s, Mendelson increasingly experimented with matter, including a new type of American paint known as “underpainting white.” He preferred to speak of relief paintings rather than texture or matter painting. Sand, earth or cement were mixed with impasto to create a pictorial skin that captures and refracts light. These relief works show affinities with artists such as Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tàpies, without losing their own clarity. In the mid-1960s, he returned to the human figure, creating humanoid forms in which English humour, pictorial discipline and a tactile surface converge, making the painted skin itself part of the subject.
Around 1951, his work evolved into abstract series in which long vertical and horizontal segments replace the visible world. Works such as “Black, white & yellow” and “Deadly nightshade” demonstrate how colour, proportion and direction forge an architecture of the pictorial plane. The painting becomes a clear and musical grid that guides the gaze and introduces timing into the act of looking, with tensions between density and breathing space that reveal themselves fully only through slow viewing.
At the beginning of the 1960s, Mendelson increasingly experimented with matter, including a new type of American paint known as “underpainting white.” He preferred to speak of relief paintings rather than texture or matter painting. Sand, earth or cement were mixed with impasto to create a pictorial skin that captures and refracts light. These relief works show affinities with artists such as Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tàpies, without losing their own clarity. In the mid-1960s, he returned to the human figure, creating humanoid forms in which English humour, pictorial discipline and a tactile surface converge, making the painted skin itself part of the subject.
Themes and series: from metaphysical still lifes to reliefs and figures
Still life functioned as Mendelson’s laboratory. The jug, bowl and shells of the 1940s act as experimental setups for balance, contour and colour. In “Still life on blue background” and “Still life with shells and jug,” objects become carriers of space, as if they reveal the architecture of the painting and invite the viewer to read the image as a construction.
In the abstract period, the emphasis shifts to the energy of the plane. Vertical bands, sharp interruptions and closed colour fields create tension. The titles sometimes suggest an inner cosmology, such as “Divination fulgurante” or “Le ténu se nourrissant de noir,” where light and dark, density and emptiness enter into dialogue. These works function as scores in which colour and direction serve as notes.
The relief paintings and later figures connect touch and sight. When matter swells or sinks, looking becomes tactile and the “skin” of the painting acquires its own dramaturgy. The return to the figure is not nostalgic but another variation on the same theme, the relationship between presence, structure and surface, in which the human form once again becomes a measure for pictorial organisation.
In the abstract period, the emphasis shifts to the energy of the plane. Vertical bands, sharp interruptions and closed colour fields create tension. The titles sometimes suggest an inner cosmology, such as “Divination fulgurante” or “Le ténu se nourrissant de noir,” where light and dark, density and emptiness enter into dialogue. These works function as scores in which colour and direction serve as notes.
The relief paintings and later figures connect touch and sight. When matter swells or sinks, looking becomes tactile and the “skin” of the painting acquires its own dramaturgy. The return to the figure is not nostalgic but another variation on the same theme, the relationship between presence, structure and surface, in which the human form once again becomes a measure for pictorial organisation.
Exhibitions, networks and collections
Mendelson was a key figure in post-war Belgian art. With La Jeune Peinture Belge, he exhibited between 1945 and 1948 in Brussels, Paris, The Hague, Stockholm, Zurich, Milan, Oxford, Cairo and Alexandria. He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1948 and 1956 and in the São Paulo Biennial in 1951. In 1952 he was invited by the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, and between 1953 and 1954 he participated in Younger European Painters at the Guggenheim Museum, which further strengthened his international standing.
Alongside his exhibition work, Mendelson completed several public commissions. He created murals for the Kursaal in Ostend and, together with Louis Van Lint, for the Canterbury restaurant in Brussels.
In 1974, he completed the monumental work “Happy Metro to You” in the Parc metro station, a playful icon of the Brussels urban landscape that illustrates his sense of scale, colour and public dialogue.
His work is represented in major collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Retrospective exhibitions were held at the Museum of Modern Art in Ostend in 1995 and at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in 2010. He also played an important pedagogical role from 1951 onward as professor of screen printing at the Ter Kameren Institute, where generations of artists absorbed his sober precision, material sensitivity and structural thinking.
Group 2 Gallery keeps the oeuvre of Marc Mendelson alive through exhibitions, private viewings and collection guidance. Available works, ranging from metaphysical still lifes and early abstractions to relief paintings and later figurative works, are carefully documented with provenance and literature. Contact us for current availability, discreet acquisition or sales advice and a tailored selection.
Alongside his exhibition work, Mendelson completed several public commissions. He created murals for the Kursaal in Ostend and, together with Louis Van Lint, for the Canterbury restaurant in Brussels.
In 1974, he completed the monumental work “Happy Metro to You” in the Parc metro station, a playful icon of the Brussels urban landscape that illustrates his sense of scale, colour and public dialogue.
His work is represented in major collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Retrospective exhibitions were held at the Museum of Modern Art in Ostend in 1995 and at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in 2010. He also played an important pedagogical role from 1951 onward as professor of screen printing at the Ter Kameren Institute, where generations of artists absorbed his sober precision, material sensitivity and structural thinking.
Group 2 Gallery keeps the oeuvre of Marc Mendelson alive through exhibitions, private viewings and collection guidance. Available works, ranging from metaphysical still lifes and early abstractions to relief paintings and later figurative works, are carefully documented with provenance and literature. Contact us for current availability, discreet acquisition or sales advice and a tailored selection.
