Nat Neujean

NAT NEUJEAN (Antwerp, 1923- Uccle, Belgium, 2018).
"The unique moment", 1969.
Bronze on patinated wooden base.
Exemplary 1/6.
Signed, dated and numbered.
With foundry stamp Fonderia d'Arte De Andreis.
Measurements: 96 x 50 x 98 cm.

The 60's will be for Neujean a decade in which he leaves behind the horrors of the war and the holocaust that until then had starred his sculptures to enter instead into the beauty and harmony of the female body in its movements and forms. Works such as the one we are now bidding for, entitled "The unique instant", attracted the attention of the great American art galleries, also impressed by the technical quality of his lost wax bronzes. In fact, a first exhibition in New York (1964) was followed by a retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1964), which greatly popularized his career. Hers is a modern sculpture, subversive and warm in the face of the celebration of feminine beauty in its fullness or its disorder, its conflicts and its emotions.

After studying sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Nat Neujean worked in Brussels and Paris. In 1960 he was awarded the Royal Belgian Academy of Sculpture and moved to Boston. He then lived between Brussels and Florence, producing numerous commissions and portraits, including those of André Malraux, Paul Delvaux and Robert Schuman. The first foundries he turned to were the Battardi brothers, based in Brussels. After his death, Neujean worked exclusively from 1955 with the Fonderia d'Arte De Andreis in Milan (Italy), where he met the great Italian sculptors (Manzù, Marino Marini, Greco, Negri, etc.). In 1993 a retrospective of his work was held at the KB Toren in Antwerp, his hometown, then crowned European Capital of Culture. In 1995 he was made a member of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome, founded by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478. In 2003, a new retrospective was inaugurated at the Royal Academy of Belgium. In 2013, a retrospective was dedicated to him at the Memorial Kaserne Dossin (Mechelen, Belgium). His works are currently located between Belgium, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy.