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Paul Brightwell
@brightwell.bsky.social
420 followers 340 following 430 posts
Actor, claqueur
rep. Curtis Brown
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brightwell.bsky.social
Kay Sage
A Little Later
1938

Denver Art Museum
A non-representational still life - an intriguing contradiction - in the muted colours characteristic of this too-often overlooked surrealist painter's work
November 8, 2025 at 10:05 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
Kurt Schwitters
Untitled collage
1929
A collage of fragments of photograph and various kinds and weights of printed papers, including advertising materials and transport system tickets etc, laid down on card; 28 x 21.7 cm (excluding mount).
November 6, 2025 at 2:54 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Victor Vasarely
Kezdi
1966

160 x 160 cm
acrylic on canvas
A geometric grid of 289 squares containing circles that diminish in size towards the centre of the canvas, all in meticulously modulated colours, the work has a mysterious glow that appears to shift mesmerically as we view it (Christie's)
October 19, 2025 at 7:08 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
Hans Bellmer
Portrait de Marcel Duchamp
1959

30.4 x 34.8 cm

a really powerful and effective portrait of Duchamp, I think
gouache, India ink and pencil on paper
October 15, 2025 at 6:43 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Kurt Schwitters
Untitled
1937

Prob. made in Norway where in Jan 1937 Kurt followed his son Ernst into exile, the Nazis having begun confiscating his work from German museums. '1920' on the mount was a misattribution by the gallerist to whom Ernst sold several of Schwitters' pictures in the 1950s
A beautiful little collage on paper. 10.8 x 8.6 cm image on a 24.8 x 18.4 cm mount.
October 15, 2025 at 12:50 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Kurt Schwitters
Radblumen
1920

This crunchy little assemblage has turned up for auction at Christie's. It's inscribed "für Vordemberge"; Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart was an abstract painter and typographer and a friend and colleague of Schwitters, Arp and Van Doesburg.
An assemblage in oil, paper, card, and canvas with metal washers and wheels and strips of fabric, on cardboard
October 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Käthe Kollwitz
Stehende Frau, nach links
1888

charcoal on buff paper
55.3 x 44.1 cm
A beautiful charcoal sketch of a young woman in left profile by Kollwitz, then just 20 years old. "Focusing on a young woman in distress, the subject's entire body is taut with anxiety and despair as she clutches the wall behind her for support. The drawing forms part of an extensive series of preparatory works Kollwitz created for a painting inspired by Emile Zola’s celebrated novel, Germinal." (Christie's)
October 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Frank Auerbach
Study for Tree on Primrose Hill
1986

oil on canvas
40.6 x 45 cm
October 5, 2025 at 7:39 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
René Magritte
Torse nu dans les nuages
c. late 1930s

oil on canvas
72.5 x 60.0 cm

Sotheby's at Hamiltons
A naked sea-green female torso on a sand-coloured base against a black background and surrounded by fluffy white clouds. A simply representational picture; at the same time, the torso seems to depict some kind of seascape.
October 4, 2025 at 7:04 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
September 26, 2025 at 3:56 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Victor Brauner
Désymbolisation
1952

oil and Ripolin on canvas
72.8 x 100 cm
September 23, 2025 at 7:42 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Victor Brauner
Séduction
1962

oil and pencil on canvas
115.7 x 88.8 cm
Two aliens devouring each other: Seduction, by the great Victor Brauner
September 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Mick Jagger and Robert 'Groovy Bob' Fraser photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1967
A B&W photo of Jagger being quite out-shone by the, as ever, impeccably dressed and elegantly wasted Groovy Bob
September 22, 2025 at 4:11 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Cecil Beaton photograph of Vera Zorina for Vogue, 1937
A soft-toned B&W photo of the German/Norwegian dancer and actor Vera Zorina, posed in profile against a marvellous chaise longue on a cod-classical stage set
September 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Robert Motherwell
Redness of Red
1985

lithograph and screenprint in colours with collage. I've pulled it forward, for reasons.
A beautiful late Motherwell collage of printed papers, including a fragment of music manuscript, dominated by deep red and black and orange
September 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Wols
Tête grotesque
c. 1940

graphite, Indian ink and watercolour on paper
19.2 x 12.5 cm
September 12, 2025 at 7:59 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
René Magritte
L'Usage de la parole
1928

brush and pen and ink on paper
32.5 x 46.3 cm
On a smudgy tan ground, two irregular off-white blocks, each casting a deep black shadow; the one on the left is labelled 'le vent', that on the right 'la Normandie'. We're clearly on the road that leads to the 1929 masterpiece 'La Trahison des images' and 'Ceci n'est pas one pipe'.
September 12, 2025 at 7:27 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Claude Cahun
Portrait of Jacqueline Lamba and André Breton
1936
A black and white photo collage of several disembodied heads of Breton and his wife, the painter Jacqueline Lamba
September 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Victor Brauner
La Saisie
1932-33

oil on canvas
81 x 64.6 cm
"...its dream-like landscape and its ambiguous use of perspective and lighting, set against a barren background of bright turquoise and deep inky blue. At its centre, an archaic Greco-Roman portal—reminiscent of a classical temple—opens to reveal a cacophony of figures and forms seemingly poised for release. Anonymous, biomorphic shapes sway and press forward, inquisitive and anticipatory, as though approaching the threshold of reality itself." (Sotheby's)
September 12, 2025 at 9:51 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
Cadavre Exquis
André Breton, Nusch Éluard, Valentine Hugo, Paul Éluard
c. 1930
An 'exquisite corpse' composite picture, each artist being unaware of the others' contributions; coloured graphite on black paper
September 2, 2025 at 7:51 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Hans Hillmann's poster for the East German re-release of
Man in the White Suit, 1964
August 9, 2025 at 4:10 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Hannah Höch
Priesterin
1930-34

collage with gold and wash laid down on card
32.7 x 24 cm

from the legendary collection of the Manchester-born collector and patroness Pauline Karpidas, which is about to be auctioned at Sotheby's, London
A fabulous, unfamiliar (at least to me) collage which "stands as a compelling testament to Höch’s incisive and layered visual critique. The work presents a figure designated as a “priestess,” evoking motifs of non-Western spirituality and ritual practice. Yet this figure is deliberately constructed from fragments of Western mass media imagery—Western facial features, a headdress fashioned from a telephone cord, and swirling shadows reminiscent of wrought ironwork—subverting traditional ethnographic and exoticist tropes." (Sotheby's)
August 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
brightwell.bsky.social
Jankel Adler
Couple
c. 1945
Two figures deeply involved with one another, posed like a portrait photograph, facing us, against a blocky, patchwork background. Something so brave and poignant about Adler's unique and unmistakeable practice.
July 31, 2025 at 8:12 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
Hannah Höch
Mutter
1930
July 25, 2025 at 6:04 AM
brightwell.bsky.social
Leonora Carrington
The Saints of Hampstead Heath
1997
July 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM