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VAN VELDE Bram
(1895-1981)
Bram VAN VELDE, a few dates

1885 Bram van Velde was born the 19th October in Zoeterwoude, near to Leyden. His father, a bankrupt businessman, abandons his family who fall on hard times.
1907 enters into the Hague as apprentice to Kramers father and son painter and decorating business. They will encourage and support his artistic talent.
1922 Supported financially by the Kramers, Bram goes to Munich, then to Worpswede, to the north of Brême, where a colony of expressionist artists introduced him to the modernity.
1924 leaving Worpswede, Bram moves to Paris . Then the following year he moves to Bellevue, near to Meudon.
1927 Bram is accepted along with his brother Geer into the Salon des Indépendants in Paris.
1928 Marries Lilly Klöker, a German painter. After spending time on the Côte d’Azur, in Corsica (in 1930), a return to Paris (1931), they choose to settle in Spain in 1932.
1936 The Spanish Civil War breaks out. His wife Lilly dies in hospital; he is repatriated to Marseille and then goes back to Paris which is in utter destitution. He is put up by his brother Geer for a time then he moves to Montrouge.
1939 Bram paints the first of his three big gouaches which will set up the autonomy of his plastic language
1947 signs a five year contract with the Maeght Gallery in Paris.
1949 Bram van Velde meets Jacques Putman (1926-1994), the art editor who will become his mentor and friend.
1952 Commercial failure at the exhibition at the Maeght gallery. Aimé Maeght puts an end to the contract but keeps the stock. From that moment, Jacques Putman will take charge of Bram.
1958 Franz Meyer organises the first exhibition in the museum of Bram van Velde, a retrospective at Kunsthalle de Berne. Bram and Marthe, his new companion leave Paris for Provence.
1959 Run over by a car, Marthe dies in Paris the 11th August. Bram moves to Tardais and stays with Jacques Putman, in order to prepare a retrospective in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Jan Krugier and Vivette Spierer invite Bram to stay with them. They play an important role in this period of his life. Bram meets Madeleine Spierer, painter, who will become his companion.
1960 Bram van Velde lived in Paris at Jacques Putman’s house until 1965, when he decided to move to Geneva.
1964 Bram van Velde and Charles Juliet meet each other for the first time.
1967 Bram van Velde is officially living in Geneva, He begins a production of lithographs which will total four hundred issues by his death.
1969 Bram makes a series of Chinese ink wash drawings.
1970 the Museum of modern art in Paris organises his first french retrospective.
1975 release of a monograph edited by Jacques Putman and Charles Juliet
1977 Bram leaves Geneva, following the break-up with Madeleine. He moves in with Jacques Putman, but stays the summer in Arles, then at Grimaud where he will properly move to in 1980.
1981 Bram van Velde dies on the 28th December in Grimaud. He is buried on the 30th Decembre in Beraud's tomb in an old cemetry in Arles. Jacques Putman who dies in Paris in 1994, is buried next to him.