Artist Database

Malcolm de Chazal was an artist, writer and philosopher whose visionary work explored the relationship between colour, nature, perception and spirituality. Initially trained as an engineer, he later turned to literature, producing his best-known work, Sens-Plastique (1948), a collection comprising several thousand aphorisms. His writings attracted the attention of French writer and poet André Breton (1896-1966), who described him as a Surrealist.

In the 1950s, de Chazal turned increasingly towards painting, initially at the suggestion of Georges Braque (1882-1963). His paintings are characterised by vivid colour palettes, simplified forms and mystical subject matter. Unlike the speculative and aphoristic nature of his writings, his paintings focus on natural forms and landscapes, rendered in a primitive, emblematic style.