Born in Antwerp, in 1901, Fernand Berckelaers adopted the pseudonym 'Michel Seuphor' (an anagram for 'Orpheus') in 1917. His long career as an artist, art critic, poet and writer meant that he made an important contribution to art history.
In 1921, Seuphor founded the Antwerp avant-garde magazine 'Het Overzicht'. From 1922 onwards, Seuphor moved at the heart of the European avant-garde in Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam and Paris, alongside the pioneers of Cubism, Dada, Futurism, Constructivism and Neo-Plasticism including Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Albert Glezines, Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Herwath Walden, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Gino Severini and Joaquin Torrès-Garcia.
In 1925, Seuphor settled in Paris and, in 1929, co-founded 'Cercle et Carré', a group dedicated to Abstraction. Seuphor organised the group's exhibitions, bringing together pioneering Abstracitonists, such as Schwitters, Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Mondrian, Arp, Taueber-Arp and Léger.
Seuphor's oeuvre was characterised by exclusive use of paper, pen drawing and East Indian ink. He played with light and dark by drawing parallel lines closely together - from this interplay of lines arose abstract forms that evoked inner truths.