Felix Labisse On Sale

Félix Labisse was a self-taught painter, illustrator and theater designer born in Douai, a small commune in France close to the Belgian border. In Douai, Labisse studied at the Collège Saint Jean and later enrolled at the École de Pêche in Ostend, a city on the Belgian coast. Labisse was closely associated with the Expressionist painter James Ensor, whom he met on a visit to Ostend in 1922. Subsequently, Labisse’s early works are anchored in Flemish Expressionism under the influence of Ensor. In his later works, Labisse developed his own aesthetic, exploring the boundaries between fantasy, ritual, magic and eroticism. He experimented with perspective and used motifs such as naked women and hybrid beasts in fantastical settings. Labisse also met the filmmaker Henri Storck, and they founded the Club du Cinéma d’Ostende, which disseminated avant-garde films by Man Ray, Carl Dreyer and Fritz Lang.

Beginning in 1927, Labisse divided his time between Paris and Ostend, becoming a major French painter. His first exhibition, which gained him critical acclaim, took place at the Ostend Gallery of Modern Art in July 1928. In 1933, Labisse settled in Paris and produced the set and costumes for Autour d’une Mère at the Théâtre de l’Atelier. In Paris, he became part of the Surrealist milieu, meeting André Masson, Max Ernst, Raymond Queneau, René Magritte and Paul Delvaux. It was in 1938 that Labisse fully established his career as a painter after his exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1947, the French filmmaker Alain Resnaise created a short film starring Labisse in his studio titled Visite à Félix. Labisse was also a successful illustrator, producing drawings for the books Le Bain avec Andromède (1944) and Histoire Naturelle (1948) by Robert Desnos. His subjects included creatures such as the cyclops and the medieval French Guivre — a serpentine creature.

By 1951, Labisse moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he would later die. Closely linked to Surrealism — a movement to which he never completely adhered too — Labisse is perhaps most recognized for his 1960s series of austere, blue goddess-like women. Interestingly, his political differences estranged him from the writer André Breton, a communist who was the founder of Surrealism and author of the Surrealist Manifesto. Remaining on the sidelines of Breton’s movement, Labisse continued to explore the limits of his imagination through painting. In 1957, Labisse published his Le Sorcier des Familles: Almanach Fatidique, featuring texts and illustrations in the layout of a calendar. He earned the respect of Breton, who wrote to him: "Beyond what may have sometimes divided us, let me tell you that I greatly appreciate your Sorcier des Familles […] This is a surrealist book, as I see it. My warmest compliments."

Labisse had his first retrospective in July 1960 at Knokke Casino in Belgium, where he exhibited 105 paintings. In 1966, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, and in 1974, he became a member of the jury at the Cannes festival. Labisse maintained a lifelong friendship with Ensor that is immortalized in the painting Bonjour M. Ensor (1964).

(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

Find fine art prints for sale on 1stDibs today.