Seuphor, Michel

(1901-1999)

   writer, artist

   Of Belgian origin, Michel Seuphor, was born Ferdinand Louis Berckelaers, in Antwerp. After 1918, he played an active role in the movement for Flemish claims and founded at Antwerp the revue Het Overzicht (Panorama, 1921-25), an organ of cultural and political struggle before it became one for avant-garde intellectuals. Settling in Paris in 1925, he established the revues Les Documents de l'esprit nouveau (1927) and Cercle et Carré (1930), journals for a group he had founded the preceding year with fellow artists Torres-Garcia and Van Doesburg. Besides romantic and poetic writings, Seuphor published a number of critical works and became, after 1945, one of the principal theorists of modern art (L'Art abstrait, ses origines, ses premiers maîtres, 1949; Dictionnaire de la peinture abstraite, 1957; La Sculpture de ce siècle, 1959; La Pienture abstraite, sa genèse, son expansion, 1962; Le Style et le Cri, 1965). He also edited studies of the Dutch artist Mondrian (1956) and Jean (Hans) Arp. Seuphor's graphic work after 1951 consists of designs that are often done in black and white, in which the horizontal aspects reveal various symbols or forms (La Mort d'Orphée, 1964).