MAX SERVAIS
Belgian surrealist artist

Max Servais (Brussels 1904-1990)

Invitation card for an exhibition about Surrealism in La Louvière, Belgium, 1947. 

A series of collages by Max Servais are on view at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels
Surrealist exhibition "Histoire de ne pas rire" up to June 16th 2024

"La Sulamite" 1972, gouache & collage, 34 x 27 cm
​​​Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]

"Untitled" ​1978, collage, 39 x 29 cm
​Available

"Phantasme" 1981, collage, 29 x 38 cm
​Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail [email protected]

"Le jour de l'an de disgrâce 70 de notre ère à Pompeï" 1983, collage, 39,5 x 29 cm
​Available

Max Servais​ was born in Brussels in 1904. In 1923 he joined the bank "Crédit Communal de Belgique", where he organized several important art exhibitions and played an important role in assembling one of the most prestigious art collections in Belgium. Both poets Paul Nougé​ and Fernand Dumont brought him in touch with the belgian surrealist movement. In 1935 Servais contributed regularly to the "Bulletin international du Surréalisme". The same year he illustrated with Magritte the magazine "Mauvais Temps". In 1936 André Breton invited him to participate in the exhibition "L'objet surréaliste" at the famous Galerie Charles Ratton in Paris. Servais started making a series of gouaches, collages (his preferred technique of expression), drawings and caricatures for the left wing press. In 1942 he was imprisoned for 4 months by the germans for playing an active role in the newspaper "Combat". 
After a long eclipse of almost 25 years, Servais took up glue and scissors again with the same enthusiasm. The world had changed in no way for him and in his collages from the 70's and 80's the same anger against the censors and the injustice, the same exaltation of love can be found, revealing his passion for art, traveling and distant civilizations.
Max Servais passed in Brussels in 1990. A series of collages are presently exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (surrealist exhibition "Histoire de ne pas rire", 2024)

 

^ top