Jacob Bornfriend (Czech 1904-1976) §
The Vegetable Net
£6,250
Auction: 30 April 2021 from 10:00 BST
Description
signed (lower left), oil on canvas
Dimensions
100cm x 49.5cm (39.3in x 19.5in)
Footnote
Provenance:
Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London;
Private Collection, UK.
Exhibited:
City of Bradford Art Gallery, 1967;
And possibly at Brighton Art Gallery in 1968.
Jacob Bornfriend, born Jakub Bauernfreund, was an important Expressionist artist of the twentieth century. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1904, Bornfriend studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1930 until 1935, developing his signature expressionistic style using simplified lines and colours to create ambiguous, organic space. In 1939, he was forced to flee his homeland due to the Nazi occupation and came to London where he became part of a group of artists known as the Continental British School of Painting. This group of prolific artists included the likes of Oskar Kokoschka and Jankel Adler, and they exhibited widely across London, with Bornfriend receiving his first solo exhibition at the Roland, Browse & Delbanco Gallery in 1950.
Although the group was not joined by stylistic similarities, an importance on representational art was often key in their works and Bornfriend’s experimentations with abstraction are of particular note during this period as he explored the importance of pattern and texture to produce a harmony of colour and space. This stylistic signature developed in the 1950s and 1960s as Bornfriend’s interest in the abstract grew and he focused on landscapes and still lifes. His interest in the passage of time and the changing seasons is evoked in the energetic sense in his works from this time, which is produced through modulating warm and cool tones in a simplified manner , much like artists such as Paul Cézanne. This is particularly apparent in works such as The Vegetable Net¸ in which the warm reds and pinks juxtapose against the cooling blues and greens to create emotional intensity.