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Paule Vézelay was born in England in 1892, but by the 1930s she had become an active member of the Parisian avant-garde after moving to France and adopting the name Paule Vézelay. Her long career and wide-ranging practice encompassed early figurative works, Surrealism and the mature abstract works for which she is best known.

England & Co have represented the Estate of Paule Vézelay since 1988, and held several solo exhibitions, including a retrospective in 2004. These pages show selected works from various periods of her career: including archive sold works from past gallery exhibitions, and selected currently available works.

In 2010, the exhibition Lines in Space: Paule Vézelay & Linda Karshan featured Linda Karshan's contemporary minimalist drawings as a complement to the purity of Paule Vézelay's constructions (the 'Lines in Space' series) and related drawings spanning the 1930s to 1970. Drawings by Vézelay were also featured in the exhibitions Wandering Lines i and Wandering Lines ii at England & Co in 2011 and 2012. Paule Vézelay: Abstraction-Creation to Le Groupe Espace was held in 2012.

Vézelay's sculpture Five Forms (1935-36), acquired from England & Co by Tate in 2000, was displayed in Modern British Sculpture, at the Royal Academy, London in 2011. Tate holds an extensive collection of the work of Paule Vézelay and they have been included in major Tate collection displays such as Poetry and Dream (Tate Modern) and she was the subject of a solo Spotlight room display (Tate Britain). Her work is held in several UK and international museum collections.

England & Co's held a solo presentation of Paule Vézelay at Frieze Masters in the Modern Women section (stand MW9) in October 2023. (Press release).

In 2025, a retrospective exhibition, Paule Vézelay: Living Lines, was arranged at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Vézelay’s home city of Bristol. This exhibition will tour to the Towner gallery, Eastbourne.

BIOGRAPHY   
 
Drawings & works on paper   Paintings   Prints   Sculpture   

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Constructions & mixed media

Lines in Space No.56 1969
21.5 x 22.5 x 4.5 in (50 x 54 x 11 cm)
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV299

Construction No.45 1965
14 x 25 x 2.25 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV294 Private collection

Lines in Space No.44 1964
14.75 x 16.75 x 3.25 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV182 Private collection

Construction No.46 1965
13.75 x 16 x 2.75 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV295 Private collection

Lines in Space No.30 1953
7.75 x 13.25 x 2 inches
Mixed media construction in glass and wood case
Ref: PV296 Private collection

Lines in Space No.6 1942
12 x 8 x 1.75 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV297 Private collection

Lines in Space No.22 1953
9 x 11.25 x 2.25 Inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: Private collection

Construction with Nine Forms in Wood on White Ground 1964
18.75 x 17.75 inches
Wood construction
Ref: PV181 Private collection

Lines in Space No.8 1942
19.5 x 22.25 x 2.25 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV146 Private collection

Lines in Space No.57 1974
14.5. x 16 x 2.5 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV163 Private collection

Lines in Space No.41 1964
13.5 x 16.5 x 2.25 inches
Mixed media box construction
Ref: PV88 Private collection

Lines in Space No.51 1965
15.75 x 22.75 x 2.25 inches
Mixed media construction
Ref: PV298 Private collection

Three Forms (one sewn on canvas) 1935
23.5 x 14.5 inches
String and charcoal on canvas
Ref: Private collection

Lines in Space No.1 (Objects in Three Dimensions) c 1935
8.75 x 10.75 x 2.25 inches
Mixed media construction with collage
Ref: PV46 Reserved