Marthe Donas’s Still Life declared a Flemish Masterpiece

Still Life is a masterpiece by Marthe Donas (Antwerp, October 26, 1885 – Audregnies, January 31, 1967), a pioneer among female abstract painters. Though her work remained underexposed for decades, major exhibitions at the MSK Ghent in 2016 and more recently at the KMSKA have revitalized her legacy. By adding this work to the List of Masterpieces, Flanders has officially placed her genius permanently in the spotlight.

Marthe Donas was a Belgian painter and a vital figure in the pre-war avant-garde. To navigate the male-dominated art world, she often signed her work with the pseudonyms Tour Donas or Tour d'Onasky. Today, she is celebrated as a pioneer of the 1920s avant-garde and holds the distinction of being the only female artist within that innovative movement in Flanders and Belgium.

Following her education in Antwerp and Dublin, Donas moved to Paris in late 1916, where she immersed herself in Cubism. A pivotal moment occurred a year later in Nice when she met the renowned Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Archipenko. This encounter transformed her artistic trajectory, leading to a sophisticated fusion of Cubism and Purism. By 1920, her work was being exhibited across Europe’s major art capitals, hanging alongside the most celebrated names of the international avant-garde.

Stylistically, Still Life aligns with the work of Archipenko from his period in Nice. However, Donas gave it a distinct interpretation of her own. With her original use of color and her strong sense of spatiality, she translated three-dimensionality onto the flat canvas. In doing so, she gave the Cubist still life a new, personal dimension.