Pieter Ouborg (1893-1956)

The search for language of expression can be seen as a central theme throughout the oeuvre of Ouborg, that covers almost the complete spectrum from (sur-)realism to complete abstraction. He is one of these artists that thrive on experimenting within the boundaries of his own creativity
Although his works are almost always interpreted in terms of emotions and feelings, this however does not cover all the possibilities. A number of drawings indicate that the artist was interested in science as well. For instance, he took pages from a 19th-century publication by the Swiss pathologist Ernst Ziegler: Lerhbuch der allgemeinen pathalogische Anatomie, as a startingpoint. Ouborg reworked the illustrations of greatly enlarged specimens with ink. The spidery characters and ovals with inner lives of their own, appear to be studies for paintings he completed after 1947. (Annelies Haase, Piet Ouborg - Solist, Zwolle 2009, p. 10.) The present lot can be seen as an example of this episode in Ouborg's oeuvre.