Cornielle

Corneille Guillaume van Beverloo, known as Corneille, is born in Liege (Belgium) in 1922. He studied drawing in Rijksakademie of Amsterdam (1940-1943). In the 40’s, Corneille is in search of a “new creativity”; in a very free way, he mainly paints birds and gardens. His first personal exhibition is organized in 1946 in Paris, where he settles definitively in 1950. In 1948,

He moved to the Netherlands when he was 12 and studied art at the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He was one of the founders of the REFLEX movement in 1948 and in 1949 he was also one of the founders of the COBRA movement, which has had great influence on Scandinavian art.^[3] He was active within the group from the beginning, not only painting but also publishing poetry in the Cobra magazine.^[4] He was a cofounder of the Experimentele Groep in Holland [nl]. Corneille was not only inspired by the drawings of children, when he heard during a Cobra Museum visit in the nineties that there was an “Art Lending for Children” he talked with the founder Roby Bellemans and asked him to send more information to his home in Paris about this project. He decided to promote the initiative because he agreed how important it was to approach children with art that connects with their experience. He started with a support list and convinced other artists like Shinkichi Tajiri to sign.

The poetic Corneille was strongly influenced by Miró and Klee. After the group dissolved in 1951 he moved to Paris and began collecting African art. These artifacts became evident in his works, which began to take on a more imaginative style, like landscapes seen from a bird's eye view, exotic birds and stylised forms.^[5] His work is in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou.^[6]

Until his death Corneille lived and worked in Paris, and made visits to Israel where he worked with the Jaffa Atelier.

On 24 September 2003 an exhibition of his prints opened at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art, Israel.^[7] He died at Auvers-sur-Oise, France.