The artist was born in Namur, Belgium in the year 1935. She was born Evlyne Devaux. She was known as one of few female pop artists. Her main subject was feminism and empowerment of women. She also worked with the female figure. If you like her work she reminds me of Tom Wesselman. The most interesting part about her technique was her choice of surface materials. She often used plexiglass as the surface.
Here is a great selection of works by Evelyne Axell.
Her family was upper middle class, her father was a dealer in silverware. At the age of two, she was chosen the most beautiful baby in her hometown of Namur. She would later become an actress. Her family home was destroyed as a result of World War II.
She finished high school and went to Namur School of Art, taking lessons in pottery and then switching to acting and the theater. In 1956, she married a well known Belgian film maker who specialized in shooting art documentaries.
At her husbands encouragement, she changed her acting name to Evelyne Axell and became taking small roles. In 1959, Axell relocated to France to pursue a more serious acting career. She would move back to Belgium and star in several movies including three that were made by her husband.
In 1964 Evelyne Axell gave up acting to start a new career as a painter. She enjoyed the Surrealist movement and chose Renee Magritte to be her teacher. Magritte was a friend of her husbands. Axell visited Magritte two times per month, and he helped her improve her technique and process of painting. Her husband was making many art documentaries and she went alongside him and thru his movies met such artists as Allen Jones, Peter Phillips, Pauline Boty, and Peter Blake.
First solo exhibition was in 1967. Later that year she abondoned the use of canvas and started using plexiglass and auto enamel. She perfected her technique and she worked in this style until her untimely death in 1972.
1969 brought the artist an award calling her the best young painter in Belgium. After this she increasingly made her paintings full of more sexuality, sometimes painting herself naked in some portraits.
This artist is often forgotten when it comes to Pop Art and more importantly women in Pop Art. Though she died young, she still had a prolific work output.
Price range: Not much info available here, oil painting record is $22,000.
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