Rombouts Droste. Original Azart drawing, 1987

Coloured pencil and pencil on wove paper, 21 x 27.5 cm. Untitled, monogrammed in lower left, dated '87' in lower right margin. In passe-partout, 39.5 x 43.5 cm, unframed. Features a signature text in 'Azart', a Language-Image system invented by Rombouts Droste. Possibly reads 'Kunstzaken' (Art affairs). Provenance: private collection, Amsterdam.

Azart is a visual alphabet developed by the Belgian artists' duo Guy Rombouts (b. 1949) & Monika Droste (1958-1998), in which each letter is represented by a specific line segment: A as an angular line, B as a bar stem, C is a curve, Z is a zigzag etc. These winding lines are connected to form words, and allow for an endless array of two- or three-dimensional shapes. In addition, each letter can be represented as a colour, a movement, or a sound. Rombouts and Droste collaborated from the mid 1980s until Monika's death in 1998.