DOCSLIB.ORG

Fernand Khnopff and Thr Sacrum

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fernand Khnopff and Thr Sacrum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 75 GEOFFREY SIMMINS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO Fernand Khnopff and Thr Sacrum Scholarship on Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) contributes aJ1, article excerpted from has been enriched recently by a catalogue previously published writing. This was the raisonne on the artist, the first retrospective first issue of Ver Sacrum devoted entirely to exhibition devoted to his work, as well as the work of one artist. numerous specialized studies, mostly concerned with iconography.l What may still Studying this ensemble of reproduced be lacking in Fernand Khnopff studies, paintings, graphic illustrations and however, is an attempt to show how complementary texts provides an opportunity Khnopff's work was regarded by his to look at Khnopff's work in context. The contemporaries - how they saw it as texts by and on Khnopff, interpreted in "Symbolist. Ii An excellent vehicle for such a tandem with illustrations, make it possible to study, thus far not singled out for intensive examine Khnopff's art as it would have been analysis in its own right, is provided by the seen by the international audience which read special issue in December 1898 of the Ver Sacrum. Because the texts which Viennese Secessionists' magazine Ver accompany the illustrations offer some Sacrum, devoted to Khnopff. 2 critical commentary on Khnopff's art, the magazine becomes in effect a contemporary Ver Sacrum, the official voice of the assessment of the artist's work - almost a Viennese Secession, was a high-quality retrospective exhibition of the artist's work publication devoted principally to the visual to that date. arts and contemporary literature. Its first issue appeared in January, 1898; it published In addition to telling us a good deal about regularly until 1903.3 Its special issue on Khnopff, this issue of Ver Sacrum makes it Khnopff contains numerous reproductions of possible to broach a number of themes paintings by Khnopff, as well as graphic relevant to the whole Symbolist period. For illustrations and photographs of his instance, because the critical assessment of sculptures; accompanying these illustrations Khnopff's work is given in a magazine, this are texts on Khnopff and his work, written underscores the importance of art by leading Viennese and Belgian writers. publications during the late nineteenth Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), Khnopff's century. Khnopff's graphic illustrations for fellow Belgian, contributes a play which is the magazine are an excellent demonstration sympathetic in tone to Khnopff's work, the that many Symbolist artists were interested in puppet drama La Mort de Tintagiles. 4 sister arts to painting. The magazine also Khnopff, a polished writer himself, attests to the cosmopolitanism and 76 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies internationalism of the period. This issue on on in their efforts to hold an exhibition. They the Belgian artist Khnopff is published in a lacked a suitable exhibition space, however, Viennese publication accompanied by poetry and eventually had to rent a building from the and texts by French, Austrian and Belgian Viennese Horticultural Society. Their writers. This degree of internationalism is far inaugural exhibition, held from 26 March to from an anomaly; among many other similar 15 June, took its name from the building instances are the Glasgow Four finding their where it was held: the Gebiiude der most fertile ground in Turin and Vienna. Gartenbau Ausstellung. The Secessionists did not lack friends in high places; the Emperor Franz Josef attended the opening night Accordingly, there are several overlapping ceremonies. Engelhart writes that the reasons for studying this issue of Ver exhibition was "the first occasion on which Sacrum: 1) the magazine provides a case anyone had been able to get some idea of the study by which Khnopff's art can be work of the best French, English, Belgian interpreted as his contemporaries saw it; 2) it and German artists of the period.,,6 Among shows how important art periodicals such as those who participated were the group Ver Sacrum were in fostering and recruited by Engelhart - including Whistler, disseminating a particular image of an art~st; Puvis de Chavannes and Walter Crane - and 3) it serves as a particularly nch many others, including Frank Brangwyn, documentary source, integrating art and Arnold Bocklin, Rodin, Segantini, Klinger literature. Only by examining Khnopff's and Stuck. Khnopff exhibited twenty works, work in the broader context of literature and making him the single largest contributor. 7 the decorative arts is it possible to arrive at a The exhibition was wildly successful, so reasoned answer to the question of how, much so that the Secessionists were able to precisely, Khnopff's art was viewed as hold another one later that year, this time in Symbolist. the Society's new building, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908). Khnopff We should first review the circumstances sent mne. wor ks . 8 which led to Khnopff's participation in the Viennese Secessionist exhibitions. The Part of the reason for the immense success of Secessionists were from the first the first Secessionist exhibition was the internationalist in outlook. 5 The Secessionist popular acclaim accorded Khnopff's. work~. artist Josef Engelhart (1864-1941), who had A whole room was reserved for hIm; hIS contacts in many other countries, was paintings were thronged by a curious and delegated to contact foreign artists regarding generally favorably impressed publi~. It .was their possible participation in the the kind of reception that caused hIS fnend Secessionists' first exhibition early in 1898. and first biographer, the poet Verhaeren, Among those he contacted were Khnopff, back home in Brussels, to write that Khnopff Rodin, Eugene Carriere, Puvis de Chavannes had received "dans toute la presse viennoise, and Whistler - all of them leading artists des eloges les plus flatteurs". 9 associated with the various movements against academic art which characterize the This popular success doubtless influenced late nineteenth century. All of them, Ver Sacrum's editorial board when it decided including Khnopff, declared their support. to award him the signal honor of a special Encouraged by the enthusiastic support from issue devoted to his work. There were also foreign artists, the Secessionists were spurred Femand Khnopff and Ver sacrum 77 other reasons which probably influenced the issue, caution impels me to avoid calling the board in Khnopff's favor. In 1989 Khnopff magazine "his" work. Nevertheless, since was at the peak of his powers and was widely tradition has it that he was responsible, I will admired across Europe. He was just the sort still refer to the images and texts as if they of artist who could demonstrate the had been selected by him. Secessionists' policy of internationalism in the arts. The year 1898 also marked Another methodological problem is raised by Khnopff's thirtieth birthday and although the type of illustrations which are included. / nowhere in the magazine is there a reference A distinction needs to be made between the to this, perhaps it was also in the minds of illustrations Khri.opff executed especially for the Secessionist artists. Also, Emperor this issue of the magazine and those which Franz Josef celebrated the fiftieth anniversary reproduce works created in another context. of his reign in 1898. This provides an The illustrations designed specifically for the additional reason for the special issue on magazine are restricted to the cover, two Khnopff, as there had historically existed a decorated initials and three illustrations for close link between Austria and Belgium La Mort de Tintagiles. Since the illustrations (Khnopff also had ancestors on his mother's designed specifically for the magazine side who sprang from aristocratic Austrian present a closer melding of text and stoCk).1O The Emperor, as we have said, illustrations than those reproduced from other attended the opening of the Gartenbau sources, should they be analyzed by different Ausstellung. methods? The illustrations for Tintagiles, for example, are indissolubly linked to the text. Before proceeding to a detailed description In most other instances the link between text and analysis of the magazine's contents, and illustration is at first glance more however, I wish to sound a note of caution. tenuous. Two examples will make this We do not mow with any precision what distinction clear. An illustration from Khnopff's role was in putting together this Tintagiles may be compared to another page issue of Ver Sacrum. 11 We do not know when from the magazine, where we see a decorated exactly he was invited to have his work initial, a reproduction of a frontispiece, and shown in Ver Sacrum; what his relations a separate text. Not only were images and were to the editors of the magazine has been text executed at different times and for impossible to determine. Khnopff's recent different clients, they seem singularly biographers write that he was responsible for unrelated thematically. The initial, executed the 'mise en page' of the magazine. 12 I in 1887, was designed for a printer in interpret this to mean that he was responsible Brussels. The frontispiece reproduces for laying out the pages, perhaps in Khnopff's title page for the Belgian writer collaboration with the magazine's art Gregoire Le Roy's book Mon Coeur pleure director. Did he also have a hand in choosing d'autre!ois, published in 1889. The text is an the texts? We cannot say. It does not change excerpt from a speech Khnopff gave to matters to any great extent if he did not Brussels' avant-garde group Le Cercle choose the texts, or even if he did not layout artistique on the English pre-Raphaelite the pages of the magazine; he certainly made painter Walter Crane in 1894. Yet by a significant contribution in any case. But bringing text and images together in a new without documentary evidence showing context, Khnopff imparts to each of them a exactly what work he performed for this new meaning - a composite meaning.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Fernand Khnopff: Writings on Art and Artists
    Fernand Khnopff: Writings on Art and Artists Fernand Khnopff, c. 1900 Edited and translated by Jeffery Howe Boston College 2016 1 About this project This compilation includes all the published writings on art by Fernand Khnopff (1858- 1921), the noted Belgian Symbolist painter, that I have been able to locate. He wrote extensively for Belgian and English publications, and was also translated into German for journals in Berlin and Vienna. An invaluable guide to Khnopff’s writings is the extensive bibliography in the catalog raisonné of his works published in 1987: Robert Delevoy, Catherine De Croës, and Giselle Ollinger-Zinque. Fernand Khnopff. Catalogue de l’œuvre (Brussels: Lebeer Hossmann, 1987). A significant number of articles has been added to their list. Some of Khnopff’s public lectures were extensively reported in the press, and these summaries have been included also. Fernand Khnopff will be one of the featured artists in the exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, “The Spirit of the Land: Tradition and Innovation in Belgian Landscape Painting” in the fall of 2017. Khnopff’s writings are a valuable source of information about many of the artists included in this exhibition. An introductory essay by the editor, “The Artist as Critic: Fernand Khnopff on Art and Artists,” introduces the major sections of this compilation. Articles originally in French and German have been translated by the editor; the translations are marked with a different font color, and follow the transcribed articles. The editor cheerfully admits to not being a professional translator, so the reader is encouraged to consult the original texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921)
    Sura Levine exhibition review of Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 4, no. 1 (Spring 2005) Citation: Sura Levine, exhibition review of “Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921),” Nineteenth- Century Art Worldwide 4, no. 1 (Spring 2005), http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/ spring05/233-fernand-khnopff. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. ©2005 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide Levine: Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 4, no. 1 (Spring 2005) Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) organized by the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, under the patronage of Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, 16 January-9 May 2004 Smaller versions of the exhibition at Museum der Moderne, Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria, 15 June-29 August 2004 and The McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, 19 September-5 December 2004. The fully illustrated Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) catalogue is available in cloth and paperback editions in French, Flemish, German, and English. 49.80 Euros 287 pages. Essays by Frederik Leen, Jeffery Howe, Dominique Marechal, Laurent Busine, Michael Sagroske, Joris Van Grieken, Anne Adriaens-Panier, and Sophie Van Vliet. "In the end, he [Fernand Khnopff] had to arrive at the symbol, the supreme union of perception and feeling." Emile Verhaeren[1] In the past decade, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels has been the organizing institution of a small group of important exhibitions of works by some of the foremost figures of Belgian modernism, including James Ensor, Réné Magritte, and Paul Delvaux.
    [Show full text]
  • (Alan Hollinghurst, 1994) and Bruges-La-Morte (Georges Rodenbach, 1892) Xavier Giudicelli
    Englishness through the Looking Glass: Intersemiotic and Intercultural Dialogues in The Folding Star (Alan Hollinghurst, 1994) and Bruges-la-Morte (Georges Rodenbach, 1892) Xavier Giudicelli To cite this version: Xavier Giudicelli. Englishness through the Looking Glass: Intersemiotic and Intercultural Dialogues in The Folding Star (Alan Hollinghurst, 1994) and Bruges-la-Morte (Georges Rodenbach, 1892). In- terfaces : image, texte, language, Université de Bourgogne ; College of the Holy Cross ; Université de Paris, 2016, Appropriation and Reappropriation of Narratives, 37, pp.55-76. 10.4000/interfaces.286. hal-02522303 HAL Id: hal-02522303 https://hal.univ-reims.fr/hal-02522303 Submitted on 17 Apr 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike| 4.0 International License 55 ENGLISHNESS THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: INTERSEMIOTIC AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUES IN THE FOLDING STAR (ALAN HOLLINGHURST, 1994) AND BRUGES-LA-MORTE (GEORGES RODENBACH, 1892) Xavier Giudicelli Ah, how beautiful the Weald looked! The hills stood out above its radiance, as Fiesole stands above the Tuscan plain, and the South Downs, if one chose, were the mountains of Carrara. She might be forgetting her Italy, but she was noticing more things in her England.
    [Show full text]
  • Étude Anglaise (Portrait of a Young Woman, Probably Elsie Maquet) Red Chalk with Touches of Blue Chalk, on Paper Laid Down on Board
    Fernand Khnopff (Grembergen-lez-Termode 1858 - Brussels 1921) Étude Anglaise (Portrait of a Young Woman, Probably Elsie Maquet) Red chalk with touches of blue chalk, on paper laid down on board. Signed FERNAND / KHNOPFF at the lower right. Signed, inscribed and titled Fernand Khnopff / 1 rue St. Bernard / BRUXELLES / étude anglaise. on a label pasted onto the old backing board. Further inscribed (in a different hand) Donné à cher Françoise / en souvenir de son grand / père. / Avec toute ma tendresse / Grand’ Mère / 12 Nov/82 on the old backing board. 191 x 133 mm. (7 1/2 x 5 1/4 in.) Like many of his fellow artists, Fernand Khnopff was something of an Anglophile. He spoke English fluently, and made annual visits to England, beginning in 1891. Long interested in English art and culture, he was an avowed admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly the work of Rossetti and Burne- Jones. Khnopff often gave English titles to his exhibited paintings, while several other works – paintings, drawings and sculptures - were given such titles as Un profil anglais, Une jeune fille anglaise, Un masque de jeune femme anglais and Une tête de femme anglaise. Khnopff also exhibited frequently in London, notably at the Society of British Pastellists, and regularly contributed essays and reviews to the English journal The Studio between 1894 and 1914. It was through his familiarity with the British community in Brussels that Khnopff met the Maquet family, who were of Scottish origins and lived in the quartier Léopold of the city. The pale skin, long hair and striking eyes of the three Maquet daughters – Elsie, Lily and Nancy – epitomized the artist’s ideal of feminine beauty.
    [Show full text]
  • Portrait of the Artist's Mother-In-Law, Mme. Sylvie Monnom-Descamps
    Théo van RYSSELBERGHE (Ghent 1862 - Saint-Clair 1926) Portrait of the Artist’s Mother-in-Law, Mme. Sylvie Monnom-Descamps Pencil on laid paper, laid down on board. Inscribed and dated Jersey / 31 juillet 07 and signed with the artist’s monogram VR in pencil at the lower right. Further inscribed Mme. Monnom in blue ink and Monnom / [?] in pencil on the reverse of the backing board 202 x 255 mm. (8 x 10 in.) Théo Van Rysselberghe was a superb portraitist, and much of his early reputation was based on his portraiture, which also accounted for a large percentage of the works that he exhibited. While in the 1880s he produced mainly portraits of family and friends, by the following decade he was receiving numerous lucrative commissions for portraits, which earned the artist a tidy income. In 1889 Van Rysselberghe married Maria Monnom, with whom he had his only child, Elisabeth. Both Maria and Elisabeth were to feature prominently in his work, as does Sylvie Monnom-Descamps (1836- 1921), his mother-in-law and the subject of the present sheet. As one scholar has written, ‘The widow of Célestin Monnom, who died in 1871, the Veuve Monnom - as she was invariably called - was the powerful head of the Monnom publishing company…which issued the two leading avant-garde Belgian periodicals, L’Art moderneand La Jeune Belgique, and the catalogues and posters for the exhibition societies Les XX and La Libre Esthétique. She also supported progressive ideas by publishing many monographs…[and] further enriched the development of modern art in Belgium through her roles as patron and hostess.’ Sylvie Monnom owned paintings by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and hosted many artists and writers at her country home in Thuin in Belgium.
    [Show full text]
  • Portrait of the Artist's Daughter, Élisabeth Van Rysselberghe
    Théo van RYSSELBERGHE (Ghent 1862 - Saint-Clair 1926) Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter, Élisabeth Van Rysselberghe Pastel. Signed with the artist’s monogram and dated 7 août 96 VR in blue chalk at the upper right. 563 x 380 mm. (22 1/8 x 15 in.) This splendid pastel is a portrait of the artist’s only child, Élisabeth Van Rysselberghe (1890-1980), who is depicted here at the age of five. The artist made several portraits of Élisabeth, whose godfather was the Belgian writer and art critic Emile Verhaeren, from her childhood to young adulthood. (This pastel portrait was, in fact, first illustrated in an article by Verhaeren devoted to Van Rysselberghe, published in the November 1899 issue of Ver Sacrum, the official periodical of the Vienna Secession.) A similar painted portrait of her at about the same age and with the same bow in her short hair, is in a private collection. Sylvia Beach, the American-born bookseller and publisher who owned the Parisian bookshop Shakespeare and Company, once described Élisabeth as ‘a handsome, rather boyish girl’3, and she always seems to have kept her hair fairly short. In 1911 the young Élisabeth Van Rysselberghe had a brief but intense affair with the English poet Rupert Brooke, with whom she maintained a correspondence until his death from septicaemia in 1915, which left her devastated. A few years after this portrait was drawn, when Élisabeth Van Rysselberghe was nine years old, her parents met the writer André Gide, who was to become close to both Théo and his wife Maria.
    [Show full text]
  • Exhibition in Focus
    Exhibition in Focus An Introduction to the Exhibition Introduction for Teachers and Students James Ensor (1860–1949), Belgium’s most celebrated artist of the modern age, is best known for his bizarre, unsettling and often darkly humorous paintings of masked figures and energetic carnival scenes. But Ensor’s work went beyond an idiosyncratic focus on magic and masks, having developed from early landscapes, still-lifes and interior scenes, it later explores worlds of the imagination, spirituality, caricature and political satire. Ensor loved to experiment. His painterly style was often loose and free – in places, almost manic in its intensity. He was one of a number of artists whose work Written by Tom Jefreys marked a radical shift from the realistic tradition that dominated the art of the mid- nineteenth century. Initially, Ensor’s work was too strange and new to be accepted For the Learning Department by the artistic establishment, but in the first decades of the twentieth century his © Royal Academy of Arts reputation blossomed. In 1929, he was made a baron by King Albert I of Belgium, and in 1933 he was awarded the prestigious Legion d’honneur. Ironically, by the time he received such recognition, Ensor’s visionary inventiveness had begun to Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans fade and he was painting far less frequently. Te Sackler Wing of Galleries Ensor was born in the small seaside city of Ostend in northwest Belgium, 29 October 2016 to 29 January 2017 where he lived almost all his life. He was inspired by the sights of the town, its coastline and the North Sea light, its carnival summers and long dark winters.
    [Show full text]
  • Iiwihhihiwwhhiiihwihihhiihii
    IIWIHHIHIWWHHIIIHWIHIHHIIHIIHHHIWIIHI l/lll/lll/ll‘llfllllllllllll/llllll Thugs l.z; y I, mifmofifi H I” '7‘ If". .. .-... ' . .. ‘ A .— i ) .4. a .\ I . I I \ '_.:. “4 0"‘-" .-:fi «'1 hit. .I‘-..~'. .. .L' ~b. u... Bar-{pic “I.“ 1.. ." V u. " 1*: ~-. .. M we? a I *8} JCJ'J ‘V \L‘o 4“ ~41 rid; \—, w v a... u:.d§wmtc.7m’mef This is to certify that the thesis entitled ISOLATION AND LOSS IN FERNAND KHNOPFF'S "I LOCK MY DOOR UPON MYSELF" presented by Michael Lee Losch has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Masters (mgeefilHistorv of Art Dam May 20. 1982 0—7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution RETURNING MATERIALS: MSU Place in book drop to LIBRARIES remove this checkout from your record. FINES will be charged if book is returned after the date stamped below. ISOLATION AND LOSS IN FERNAND KHNOPFF'S "I LOCK MY DOOR UPON MYSELF" BY Michael Lee Losch A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MAS?ER OF ARTS Department of Art 1982 ABSTRACT ISOLATION AND LOSS IN FERNAND KHNOPFF'S "I LOCK MY DOOR UPON MYSELF" BY Michael Lee Losch The Belgian Symbolist Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) has remained in relative obscurity until the present decade. Much of the new interest has focused on his 1891 I; masterpiece, ; Lock My Door Upon Myself. While other :4 ‘ ‘ x‘ ‘ scholars have investigated the iconography of this paint- V J / / .I ing, they have not focused on how it reflects Khnopff's a,“ personal aesthetic and philOSOphical beliefs and how these are linked through a complex arrangement of esoteric and symbolic imagery to his separation, in 1890, from his sister who had been an essential inspiration for his art.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflections on Its Origins in Belgium
    THE SYMBOLIST MOMENT Reflections on Its Origins in Belgium Michel Draguet Any consideration of the sources of both Belgian Symbolism grandfathers respectively. The social standing of the two and the reception of Symbolism in Belgium requires a broad younger generations was determined by a systematic doubt outlook that extends beyond the immediate end-of-century whose preferred means of reflection was poetry – which timeframe.1 At the same time, though, the task of the pres- asked existential questions: What should we do? Who are ent is to determine its own relationship to the past. If Sym- we? Where are we going? What is the meaning of progress? bolism developed in Belgium at the turn of the 1880s, it was, What is our identity?5 nevertheless, more than just the outcome of interconnec- This perplexity, though, did not in itself constitute an ac- tions arising between European artistic circles2 sharing a tual programme. Even the designation “Symbolism”, which similar sensibility and asking similar questions: it was also today appears to be a plain and simple historical fact, was the the continuation of a tradition originating with the “Flemish subject of fierce debate, given that the definition of the term 6 Primitives”. depended on which centre of gravity – Paris or Brussels – Fig. 1 Fernand Khnopff In order to get a sense of the links between present and won the day and, as a consequence, which coterie of artists Days Gone By, 1905, photograph by Alexandre, heightened by Khnopff with pencil, past, it is necessary to begin with this background and to go would prevail.
    [Show full text]
  • Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I Author(S): Debora L
    Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I Author(s): Debora L. Silverman Source: West 86th, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2011), pp. 139-181 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Bard Graduate Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662515 . Accessed: 12/12/2014 08:47 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and Bard Graduate Center are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to West 86th. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 216.165.95.72 on Fri, 12 Dec 2014 08:47:57 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I Debora L. Silverman University of California, Los Angeles This article is the first of a two-part study. Part I identifies Belgian art nouveau as a specifically Congo style and as “imperial modernism,” created from Congo raw materials and inspired by Congo motifs—the lash, the vine, and the elephantine. Focusing closely on works by Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde, and Philippe Wolfers, Part I suggests how stylistic forms of modernism expressed a displaced encounter with a distant but encroaching imperial violence—the return of the repressor in visual form.
    [Show full text]
  • JAMES ENSOR in the TWENTIETH CENTURY Katherine Virginia Kula
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: ‘ME AND MY CIRCLE’: JAMES ENSOR IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Katherine Virginia Kula, Master of Arts, 2010 Thesis Directed By: Professor June Hargrove Department of Art History & Archaeology At the time of his death in 1949, Belgian artist James Ensor (b. 1860) had already garnered decades of acclaim for his bold, expressionistic use of color and outlandish scenes that frequently featured his favored motifs of masks and skeletons. Such images, produced largely in the 1880s and 1890s, are to this day considered Ensor’s most ‘creative.’ Although he generated a remarkably large and diverse body of work between the turn of the century and the end of his life, these later images are left largely unconsidered in scholarship on the artist. Here, by approaching Ensor’s twentieth-century body of work as an inextricable piece of the artist’s entire oeuvre, and by juxtaposing the ‘early’ and ‘late’ Ensors, I will examine how the altered artistic path Ensor took in the twentieth century is symptomatic of larger changes occurring in his life. ‘ME AND MY CIRCLE’: JAMES ENSOR IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY By Katherine Virginia Kula Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor June Hargrove, Chair Professor Steven Mansbach Professor William Pressly Disclaimer The thesis or dissertation document that follows has had referenced material removed in respect for the owner's copyright. A complete version of this document, which includes said referenced material, resides in the University of Maryland, College Park's library collection.
    [Show full text]
  • Théo Van Rysselberghe
    Jane Block exhibition review of Théo Van Rysselberghe Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 6, no. 1 (Spring 2007) Citation: Jane Block, exhibition review of “Théo Van Rysselberghe,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 6, no. 1 (Spring 2007), http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring07/131-theo- van-rysselberghe. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. ©2007 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide Block: Théo Van Rysselberghe Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 6, no. 1 (Spring 2007) Théo Van Rysselberghe Organized by the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and Olivier Bertrand of the Belgian Art Research Institute, 10 February-21 May 2006 Gementeemuseum, The Hague, 10 June-24 September 2006 Brussels proved to be more than just the capital of the European Union this past May when the city hosted three stimulating exhibitions. Art Nouveau Bing, held at the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, and Yearning for Beauty: The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House shown at Victor Horta's Palais des Beaux-Arts, were cause for celebration in the art historical community, paying tribute to the work of the savvy dealer, Siegfried Bing, and to the anomaly of Josef Hoffman's Viennese palace having been constructed in Brussels. The third exhibition, also held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, was a major retrospective of the work of the Belgian artist, Théo Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926), that showed over 200 works by the artist, accompanied by a profusely illustrated catalogue of 260 pages.
    [Show full text]