Cobra
de Victor Vanoosten, Christophe Bourseiller
On the occasion of the Cobra exhibitions presented from November 2017 at the museum of Tessé, Le Mans, and the museum of Pont-Aven, Arteos publishes a book dedicated to the Cobra group. Cobra was in the aftermath of the Second World War, a poetic and artistic explosion that deeply marked the art of the second half of the twentieth century. The book aims to re-evaluate the essential role of Cobra artists on the international art scene since 1945. In the light of articles by European art historians and rich iconography, this publication reviews the fundamentals of the art of Cobra artists during the historic years (1948-1951) and highlights the importance years of the "after-Cobra" which attest the continuity of the aspirations of Cobra at the heart of the international artistic stakes of the last fifty years. The book presents works by all Danish, Dutch, Belgian, French, German, English, Swedish and American artists and poets who took part in Cobra's actions, which in 1951 was defined as an International of Experimental Art. Works from major European public and private collections are confronted with historical documentation, sometimes unpublished by artists and their beneficiaries. À l'occasion des expositions Cobra présentées à partir de novembre 2017 au musée de Tessé, Le Mans, et au musée de Pont-Aven, les éditions Arteos publient un ouvrage consacré au groupe Cobra. Cobra fut, au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, une explosion poétique et artistique qui a profondément marqué l'art de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Ce livre a pour ambition de réévaluer le rôle essentiel des artistes du groupe Cobra sur la scène artistique internationale depuis 1945, à la lumière d'articles d'historiens de l'art européens et d'une riche iconographie.