The Artistic Journey of Marthe Donas
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Marthe Donas began her formal training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp at seventeen. Her early work was primarily focused on portraits of family and friends, as well as still lifes. Following the outbreak of the First World War, she moved to Dublin, where she studied drawing, painting, print-making, and stained-glass art at Sarah Purser’s studio, An Tur Gloine. After this period, she traveled to Paris, where she studied at the Académies de la Grande Chaumière and Ranson. In 1917, she became a pupil of André Lhote and began adapting a cubist style. Later, while living in Nice, she collaborated with the sculptor Alexander Archipenko, incorporating elements of sculpto-paintings into her work through the use of concave and convex forms.
Evolution of Style and Recognition
Throughout her career, Donas utilized several pseudonyms, including Tour d'Onasky, Tour Donas, and M. Donas. Her work explored various techniques, including collage with materials such as cement, sand, fabric, lace, sandpaper, and wallpaper. Her stylistic evolution moved from cubism and abstraction toward a more figurative style, and later, a neo-cubist style. In her later years, she produced non-figurative works inspired by pure intuition. Her art has been featured in numerous exhibitions and is held in various collections, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Her work was also part of the Societé Anonyme collection in New York, which was later donated to the Yale University Gallery.
