Engel-Pak was well-immersed in an avant-garde art scene in the 1950s which, for him, was a period of pure lyrical abstraction, of pictorial exploration that characterised a group of artists belonging to ‘La Seconde École de Paris’. He was free from a pursuit of form, adopting instead an impulsivity which remained with his art until the end of his life. It was a time in which he sought pure creativity, without any purpose but to express painting through light, colour, rhythm, movement, medium and spacial awareness. The paintings were to speak for themselves – unencumbered by theory. Paintings reminiscent of Zen calligraphy found balance and harmony through broad strokes and contrast. The edges of the paper or canvas contained a universe, ordered by the artist’s gesture and his medium. Small pastels and charcoals broke free of the thick tread of oil paint, striving towards purity of light and colour. In the 1950s, Engel-Pak worked tirelessly, obsessively, and exhibited in a number of galleries in the South of France, as well as Paris, Brussels and Antwerp.