Paule Vézelay (British 1892-1984)
Paule Vézelay was a talented and versatile artist, she did painting, drawing, sculptures, collages and engraving; she also turned her hand to book illustration and fabric designing.
She studied painting and etching at the Bristol School of Art and continued her studies in London at the Slade. In 1917 she met the Belgian impressionist painter Léon De Smet whose influence in her early work is apparent. In 1918 they exhibited together in Deansgate. Vézelay settled in Paris in 1926 where for two year she studied form through traditional method. In 1928 she turned to abstract painting and developed a fresh and charming manner of quasi-geometrical abstraction, avoiding the extremes of 'art informel' and 'Tachism'.
She was the first English abstract artist to have made an international reputation with exhibitions at the Galérie Jean Boucher and the Galérie Colette Allendi in Paris, and at the Gimpel Fils and Lefèvre Galleries in London. In 1968 her work was the subject of a retrospective at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. The Tate Gallery hosted a retrospective exhibition in 1983.
Public collections include
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
Bolton art Gallery
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol
British Museum, London
London Tate, London
Derby Art Gallery
Foundation Berardo, Museum of Modern Art, Sintra, Portugal
Grenoble Museum
Imperial War Museum, London
Kunst Museum, Basel
National Portrait Gallery, London
The Arts Council of Great Britain
Ulster Museum
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Solo Exhibitions
2004, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984, Retrospective, England & Co., London.
2002, Display of works by Paule Vézelay from Tate collections, Tate Liverpool.
2000, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984, Retrospective, England & Co., London.
1998, Paule Vézelay: Permit Denied, Imperial war Museum, London.
1997, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984, Early Figurative Works, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal.
1995, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984: Figurative Works, The Garden Gallery, at Pallant House, Chichester; Paule Vézelay, The Centre for the Study of Sculpture in the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.
1993, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984, England & Co., London.
1992, The Tabernacle Cultural Centre, Wales.
1991, Paule Vézelay, England & Co., London.
1989, Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984, Roberts/Rutherston, London.
1988, Paule Vézelay: Imagination, Mathematics, Balance, Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Paule Vézelay 1892 - 1984: Early Work 1909- 1939, Michael Parkin Fine Art, London and Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol.
1987, Paule Vézelay: Paintings and Constructions, Annely Juda Fine Art, London.
1983, Paule Vézelay, Retrospective Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London.
1980, Paule Vézelay: Paintings, Drawings and Constructions 1933 - 1980, Zabriskie Gallery, New York.
1968, Paule Vézelay: Retrospective of drawings, collages, paintings, sculpture and constructions 1916 - 1968, Grosvenor Gallery, London.
1950, P. Vézelay: Oeuvres Récentes, Galerie Colette Allendy, Paris.
1949, Paule Vézelay: Moving and Static Forms, St. George's Gallery, London.
1947, Paule Vézelay: Oeuvres de 1928 à 1946, Galerie Colette Allendy, Paris.
1946, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
1942, Recent Works by Paule Vézelay, Alex, Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London.
1937, Paule Vézelay: Toiles, Sculpture, Graphiques, Objets, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
1936, Paule Vézelay: Paintings and Sculptures, Alex, Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London.
1934, Exposition de Toiles Récentes de Paule Vézelay, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
1930, Paule Vézelay, Galerie Vavin-Raspail, Paris.
1928, Galerie Alice Manteau, Paris.
1925, M. Watson-Williams, Chdes Enfants, Cap d'Antibes, France.
1921, Exposition de Marjorie Watson-Williams, Peintre, Galerie Louis Manteau, Brussels.
1924, Dorien Leigh Galleries, London.
1920, Exposition de M. Watson-Williams, Galerie des Feuillets d'Art, Paris.
Group Exhibitions
2004, 20th Century Prints from the Turnpike Collection, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, Greater Manchester
2003, Artists' Textiles in Britain 1945 - 1970, Fine Art Society, London; Sartorial and concurrent exhibition Paule Vézelay: Textiles and Textile Designs from the 1950s, England & Co., London
2002, Paris: Capital of the Arts 1900 - 1968, Royal Academy, London and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
1999, Continuation, England & Co., London
1998, John Piper, Terry Frost, Ben Nicholson and Paule Vézelay, Innocent Fine Art, Bristol
1994 - 95, Worlds in a Box, Whitechapel Gallery, London and touring
1993, Art in Boxes, England & Co., London and Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham; Surrealism: Revolution by Night, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and touring
1992, The Non-Objective World, South Bank Centre, London and touring
1991, Art in Boxes, England & Co., London
1990, Boxes and Totems, England & Co., London
1989, Paule Vézelay & André Masson, Paintings and works on paper 1928 - 1934, England & Co., London
1988, The Avant-Garde in Britain 1910 - 1960, Fine Art Associates, London; British Art in the Twentieth Century, Peter Nahum Gallery, London; The Non-Objective World Revisited, Annely Juda Fine Art Associates, London
1985, Anthony Dawson Artists at the Barbican, The Barbican Centre, London
1980, Abstraction 1910 - 1940, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1978, Abstraction - Création 1931 - 1936, Munster and Paris
1974, Edinburgh Festival
1973, The Non-Objective World 1914 - 55, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1972, Geometric Abstractions: 1926 - 1942, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, USA; The Non-Objective World 1939 - 55, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1971, The Non-Objective World 1914 - 55, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1970, Second British International Print Biennale, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford
1968, Collection Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach, Kunst Museum, Basel
1964, London Group 1914 - 64, Tate Gallery, London
1957, 50 Ans de Peintre Abstrait, Galerie Creuze, Paris
1955, Group Espace of Great Britain, Festival Hall, London
1954, Paule Vézelay: Lines in Space and their Shadows 1963 - 1954 and other works, Leicester Galleries, London
1952, Groupe Espace, Paris
1950, P. Vézelay, George Fairley, Alan Davie, Gimpel Fils, London
1946 - 51, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris
1939, Internationale de l'Art Abstraite-Réalités Nouvelles, Galerie Charpentier, Paris
1938, Arp, Domela, Kandinsky, Magnelli, Seligman, Tauber-Arp, Vézelay, Galleria del Milione, Milan; Internationale de l'Art Non-Figuratif, Gemente Museum, Amsterdam
1932 - 33, Conféderation des Artistes d'Avant-garde Paris Tokio, Japan
1930, De Onafhankelijken, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1929 - 37, Exhibited most years at the Salon des Surindépendents, Paris
1928, London Group Retrospective Exhibition, New Burlington Galleris
1925, Some Modern British Artists, Lefevre Gallery, London
1924, Venice Biennale; Chicago International; New Orleans International
1923, International Exhibition, Australia
1922 - 24, Society of British Engravers; London Group
1921, New English Art Club; Salon National des Beaux Arts
1920, M. Watson - Williams and Gustave de Smet, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels; M. Watson - Williams, Charcoal drawings, pastels, lithographs and watercolours, Finnigans, Deansgate
1918, New English Art Club