Eugene Brands was a Dutch artist known for his abstract paintings. He was an early member of CoBrA, an avant-garde art movement in Europe; CoBrA was active from 1948 to 1951, and the initials stand for Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam, the home cities of the movement. In 1949 Brands left the movement to branch out on his own, and he became interested in primitive cultures, especially in the music, ethnography and magical aspects of these cultures. In the 1950’s he became interested in children’s drawings, and in the 60’s he returned to abstract figuration, with two major themes: eternal motion and the immensity of the cosmos. This is the first piece by Brands in our auction. It is entitled “Composition” on the verso. It is matted and signed with his initials “E B” in the lower right part of the image, it was done in 1981, and it’s dated on the verso. It reads “6581 Composition 25 - I - 81 (Gouache) 25 January - 1981 - 1” on the verso. There are waterstain lines on the back side of the piece, but they do not go through to the image. The overall size is 32 1/4 x 32 1/4 in. wide and the sight size is 19 1/4 x 21 3/4 in. wide.