Nicolas De Stael

Russian-French, 1914–1955. The Russian-French painter, Nicholas De Stael, was recognized for his rare ability to portray his abstract landscapes without resorting to literal duplication of the actual subject. By rendering his compositions with thickly applied oil paint on his canvas using a palette knife, he often overlapped blocks of densely saturated color to create the desired imagery. Stael typified painting as a way to liberate himself from his caged feelings and anxieties and advertised it as the ultimate solution. After studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels, he spent the majority of his career living in France where he received critical acclaim. His later canvases are said to have predicted the Color Field movement and what we consider as contemporary painting today.