Cobra Art Wall Sculpture in Painted Wood from Le Corbusier, France, 1970s

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This commanding wall-mounted sculpture, hand-carved in wood and vividly painted in primary colors, is a rare and evocative work created … Read more This commanding wall-mounted sculpture, hand-carved in wood and vividly painted in primary colors, is a rare and evocative work created in the expressive style of the Cobra movement, echoing the visual language of artists such as Corneille, Asger Jorn, and with formal echoes of Le Corbusier’s postwar sculptural geometry. This was made by an unknown French artist in the 1970s. Though the artist remains unknown, the craftsmanship, scale, and compositional clarity suggest the hand of a truly gifted maker working with a deep understanding of both abstract organic form and color-driven emotional expression. The piece was long held in the private collection of a prominent Dutch family, who displayed it in their French holiday residence. Likely acquired decades ago, its authorship was never confirmed, but its sculptural authority and painterly surface leave no doubt of its artistic merit. Its large and unusually complex form amplifies its visual impact, and also serves as a testament to the technical mastery required to produce such a work. Carved from solid wood, the sculpture presents a rhythmic, almost architectural composition of intersecting shapes, curves, and reliefs that invites prolonged observation. Rendered in the pure primary palette of red, blue, and yellow, accented by black and green, the work captures the optimistic, rebellious energy of the Cobra movement, an avant-garde group founded in 1948 that sought to liberate art from academic rigidity, turning instead to spontaneous, childlike forms and emotionally charged imagery. The Cobra artists drew inspiration from folk art, mythology, and raw human experience, valuing process and intuition over perfection. This sculpture, with its tactile hand-carved surface and dreamlike abstraction, channels that same ethos. Viewed from different angles or in shifting light, the piece seems to reveal new figures, faces, or forms, a dynamic visual experience that transforms any space it inhabits. Whether seen as a figural abstraction, a surreal landscape, or a purely formal exploration of color and mass, the sculpture resists easy classification, making it a continually rewarding presence. In good original condition with gentle signs of age, this is not only a powerful work of art, but a poetic and historic echo of one of the 20th century’s most vital artistic movements. A piece that invites the viewer to engage, imagine, and rediscover, again and again. See less