Evelyne Axell (born 1935 in Namur, Belgium) began her career as a TV presenter, becoming a charismatic and acclaimed theatre and film actress in Paris and Brussels, as well as a script writer. In 1964, due to the misogyny inherent within the film industry, she decided to quit her promising acting career to pursue painting. It was during the filming of one of her husband’s documentary, “Dieu est-il Pop?”, that she met in London with Allen Jones, Peter Phillips, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, and Joe Tilson. She then decided to embrace Pop Art.

The Belgian Surrealist painter René Magritte, a family friend, exceptionally accepted to be her tutor during a year. Soon she developed her own technique and style, abandoning oil paint and canvas for plastic materials and enamel. Evelyne Axell who used that name for her actress career, called herself just Axell when starting to paint to distract attention from her gender-specific first name and focus on the problematic position in which female artists found themselves at the time.

In 1969 she was the first woman to win the Young Belgian Painters Prize. But her career was tragically cut short in a car accident in 1972, at just 37. In the short time span of eight years, Evelyne Axell made work that championed female sexuality, civil rights and environmentalism. Despite her untimely death, which came just as her career was reaching its peak, Axell left behind a relatively vast body of works ranging from collages to films, drawings, and large-scale paintings.

Axell's work was shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, among others at Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany (2022); MAMAC, Nice, France (2021); Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland (2020); Le Delta, Namur, Belgium (2019); KIOSK Art Center, Ghent (2017); at Tate Modern, London (2016); Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2017); the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2016); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2015); the Dallas Museum of Modern Art, Dallas (2015); LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz (2013); the Barbican Art Gallery, London (2013); Tate Liverpool (2013); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2013); at Kunstverein, Hamburg (2011); Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2011); at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2010); the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009); or the Fernsehturm, Berlin, Germany (2006).

Her work is part of renowned public collections such as the Tate Modern, London; MoMA, New York; MUMOK, Vienna; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Pinault Collection, Venice; the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; the Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels; Mu.ZEE - Kunstmuseum aan Zee, Ostend; S.M.A.K. - Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent; or the Design Museum Brussels, Brussels.

EVELYNE AXELL