Michel Stoffel (1903–1963) was a

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

artist and author. He also worked for a time in the insurance sector. Together with

Joseph Kutter Joseph Jean Ferdinand Kutter (1894–1941) is considered one of Luxembourg's most important painters. He was greatly influenced by the Impressionists but developed his own distinctive Expressionist style. Early life Kutter was born on 12 Decemb ...

, he is considered to be one of Luxembourg's most prominent painters."Stoffel, Michel", ''Luxemburger Lexikon'', Editions Guy Binsfeld, Luxembourg, 2006.

Early life and education

Stoffel was born on 24 March 1903 in

Bissen Bissen ( ) is a commune and town in central Luxembourg, in the canton of Mersch. It is situated on the river Attert. , the town of Bissen, which lies in the east of the commune, has a population of 3,021. Bissen is home to a steel factory, o ...

, central Luxembourg. In 1913, his family moved to

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

where he attended primary and secondary school, although he completed his schooling in Luxembourg at the Lycée de Garçons in

Limpertsberg Limpertsberg ( lb, Lampertsbierg) is a quarter in north-western Luxembourg City, in the centre of Luxembourg. In the south, on the border with the main city is the Glacis, a large open air parking lot which hosts the annual Schueberfouer fair, ...

. From 1919, he took a correspondence course at the ''Ecole Universelle de Dessin'' in Paris and, after working in the insurance business for a few years, he completed his studies at the Weimar Academy of Fine Art in 1933."Michel Stoffel"
, ''MediArt.lu''. Retrieved 21 December 2010.

Artistic career

While working in the insurance sector, founding a company of his own in 1934, he also continued to paint, winning the Prix Grand-Duc Adolphe in 1936 and becoming president of the

Cercle artistique de Luxembourg The Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL), originally the Cercle artistique luxembourgeois, is an association founded in 1893 which brings together artists of all types with a view to supporting artistic work and art education in the Grand Duchy of ...

in 1939. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, together with other Luxembourg artists, he exhibited in the ''Salon d'Automne des Artistes lorrains'' in Nancy (1945) and also held an exhibition of his own paintings at the Galerie Bradtké in Luxembourg (1946). In 1948, he participated in the ''Salon d'Art moderne et contemporain'' in

. It was in 1950 that he first started to paint in the geometric style of abstract art, leading him in 1954 to be one of the founding members and spokesman of the

Iconomaques Iconomaques is the name of a group of Luxembourg artists who moved away from figurative art in order to promote abstract art. Created in 1954, the founding members were Will Dahlem, Henri Dillenbourg, François Gillen, Emile Kirscht, Joseph Prob ...

, a group of Luxembourg artists devoted to abstract art. In 1956, he received an honorable mention at the fourth

São Paulo Art Biennial The São Paulo Art Biennial (Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...

. He completed two mosaics for Luxembourg's ''Nouvel Athénée'' in 1962 and became a member of the arts and literature section of

Grand Ducal Institute Grand Ducal Institute () is the national academy of Luxembourg. It is based in Luxembourg City, in the south of the country. The Institute incorporates six subsections, each dedicated to a separate field of academic research: * History (''Sectio ...

. Michel Stoffel died in Luxembourg City on 29 March 1963, five days shy of his 60th birthday. To mark the centenary of his birth, in 2003 Luxembourg's

National Museum of History and Art The National Museum of History and Art ( lb, Nationalmusée fir Geschicht a Konscht, french: Musée national d'histoire et d'art, german: Nationalmuseum für Geschichte und Kunst), abbreviated to MNHA, is a museum located in Luxembourg City, in ...

held an exhibition of his work: ''Rétrospective Michel Stoffel 1903–1963''.

Bibliography

*"Rétrospective - Michel Stoffel - 1903–1963", Musée national d'histoire et d'art, Luxembourg. Catalogue. . *Joseph-Émile Muller & Joseph Funck, "Michel Stoffel". Publication de la Section des arts et lettres de l'Institut grand-ducal, Institut Grand-Ducal, 91 pp., 1971, Luxembourg. *Nic Weber, ''Michel Stoffel'', in: Les Cahiers luxembourgeois 2003/1.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoffel, Michel 1903 births 1963 deaths Abstract artists 20th-century Luxembourgian painters 20th-century male artists Male painters