Michel Seuphor
Modern Masters Tapestries selection by Didier Marien
Learn more about the artist
Michel Seuphor Tapestries
Born in Antwerp in 1901, Fernand Berckelaers adopted the pseudonym ‘Michel Seuphor’ (an anagram for ‘Orpheus’) in 1917. His prolific career as an artist, art critic, poet, and writer made him an influential figure in art history.
In 1921, Seuphor founded the avant-garde magazine ‘Het Overzicht’ in Antwerp. From 1922 onward, he was at the heart of the European avant-garde movement, collaborating with pioneering artists such as Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Albert Gleizes, Jean Arp, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, who shaped Cubism, Dada, Futurism, Constructivism, and Neo-Plasticism.
In 1925, Seuphor settled in Paris and co-founded the abstract art group “Cercle et Carré” in 1929. As the group’s organizer, Seuphor brought together pioneering abstractionists like Schwitters, Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Mondrian, Arp, Taueber-Arp, and Léger for their exhibitions. Seuphor’s own work was later defined by his exclusive use of paper, pen drawing, and East Indian ink. Through the interplay of closely drawn parallel lines, he evoked inner truths by playing with light and dark to create abstract forms.

