A RETROSPECTIVE
RIK WOUTERS
< Cover : cat. 62, detail
Lady in blue before a mirror
Book published under the direction of Somogy éditions d’Art Publishing director: Nicolas Neumann Managing Editor: Stéphanie Méséguer Editorial coordination and follow-up: Mathilde Senoble Graphic design: T’ink, Brussel Translation from French into English: Jonathan and David Michaelson Translation from Dutch into English: Irene Schaudies Editorial contribution: Katharine Turvey Production: Béatrice Bourgerie and Mélanie Le Gros
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium General coordination of the book: Laurent Germeau, with the help of Lola Vandenbussche Authors: Olivier Bertrand, Stefaan Hautekeete, Frederik Leen, Inga Rossi-Schrimpf, Herwig Todts, Francisca Vandepitte List of works: Sophie Van Vliet
© Somogy éditions d’Art, Paris, 2017 © Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, 2017
ISBN 978-2-7572-1281-3 Legal deposit: March 2017 Printed in the European Union
Photogravure by Quat’Coul, Toulouse. This book was printed by Leporello in February 2017.
The captions included in the catalogue are based on those provided by lending institutions and may in some cases be different from the titles that appear in the catalogue raisonné. The catalogue raisonné numbers are indicated by C.R. in captions, and by no. in endnotes.
RIK WOUTERS A RETROSPECTIVE
<â&#x20AC;&#x192; cat. 56, detail
Rik with a blue shirt
Contents Preface
7
Michel Draguet
9
Manfred Sellink
Well-Tempered Avant-Gardist 13
I n statu nascendi. The Work of Art in the Making and the Uncompleted Life of Rik Wouters Frederik Leen
Paintings
33 Rik Wouters as a Painter of Light and Colour Stefaan Hautekeete
Works on Paper
129 Line, Form and Colour: Introductory Reflections on a Choice of Works on Paper Inga Rossi-Schrimpf
Sculptures
203 The Impressionist Sculpture of Rik Wouters: On the Threshold of a New Era Francisca Vandepitte
Wouters in the World of Art
253 Craving a Place in the Canon: On the Reception of the Work of Rik Wouters
267 Rik Wouters and Georges Giroux: The Artist and the Gallery Owner
Herwig Todts
Olivier Bertrand
Appendices
279 Biography, Olivier Bertrand
293 Bibliography
298
Name Index
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cat. 36, detail
The woman with the yellow necklace
Preface MICHEL DRAGUET General Director Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
After exhibitions devoted to the works of Ensor, Khnopff, Spilliaert, Magritte, Delvaux, and Alechinsky, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are continuing their monographic exploration of leading modern and contemporary Belgian artists. More than a century after the artist’s death, Rik Wouters’ paintings still have that hedonistic quality that conveys his passionate love for Nel, the sole model for his paintings, who gave meaning to both his life and his œuvre. It is as though the man behind the painter had very quickly sensed the brevity of his life and the fleeting nature of existence, prolonged only by the artistic act. Some of his work has an unfinished quality – a mise en abyme for a life that was tragically cut short. The insistent desire for happiness conveyed by Wouters’ painting goes beyond bibliographical anecdote. It is part of a general aesthetic endeavour that was unique in historic avant-garde movements. Attributing colour with an expressive value devoid of mere impressionist notation, Wouters contributed to a general movement of emancipation from representation based on observation. Hence, when he painted Woman in blue, he combined the jubilatory notion of the amorous instant with the fragmentation of representation. This explains his taste for the motif of the picture within the picture that enabled him – without having to broach the delicate question of the subject’s death – to allow his painting to represent the very completion of his quest: a landscape or figurative image, the work hanging on the wall and captured in the reflection of the mirror is transformed into a purely formal exercise. The sensuality of this abstraction does not preclude formal rigour. Hence, behind Nel’s face, Wouters has created a dialogue between two pure forms, one red and the other blue, against an immaculate ground that evokes – quite unknowingly – the Supremacist Icons that Kasimir Malevich would later paint. Complementing this immutable presence that enhances the painting, the woman’s face is captured in a sensual snapshot. As she leans towards her own fragmented face, she inscribes a trajectory which, extending from her body to her reflected image, suggests a kiss. Here is a promise of instantaneous fusion and simultaneous effusion that determines the very order of the painting. It is a demonstration of love and joy.
Like Matisse, Wouters used light as a hedonistic vector devoid of the scientific pretext of neo-impressionism. Elevated to an artistic act in itself, his treatment of light opened up new horizons in modernism, on the margins of that of the twentieth century, which, developing from abstraction, initially resulted in a conceptual approach dedicated to the disappearance of painting through painting itself: Constructivism and Productivism on the one hand, and Minimalism and Conceptualism on the other. Perhaps Wouters’ form of modernism is more relevant to the twenty-first century. A post-radical modernism linking pleasure with desire may open up new horizons. Perhaps this exhibition, which brings together the teams of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and those of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, will be a decisive contribution to this process. The two hundred works assembled here – some of which have never been exhibited in public – attest to the richness of Wouters’ œuvre as well as the heritage held in our Belgian museums. Their dissemination in the dual form of an exhibition and a catalogue is the fruit of close collaboration between the two institutions. At a time when divisions and exclusions are so rife, we are delighted to see our teams working together to present the Belgian and international publics this ode to shared intimacy that also underlines the value of an artist who, until now, has only been famous in Belgium. This exhibition aims to highlight the quality of his œuvre and the integrity of an artistic approach that, while experimenting with the codes of modernity implemented as an avant-garde movement, succeeded in transmitting the values of a unique personality. This is a joyous experience in the grisaille of a dystopian world – a world that is far removed from simple happiness and its colours.
7
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cat. 46, detail
Woman reading
Preface Prof. Dr. MANFRED SELLINK Executive Director – Chief Curator Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
It is remarkable that the two largest art museums of Belgium have rarely joined forces to realise a common project. Although contact at the executive level as well as at that of the staff is no doubt excellent, the last time both institutions organised an exhibition together was 1992, with Avant-garde in België (1917–1929). That is (too) long ago.
Finally, all of these presentations, and certainly the retrospective in Brussels, have been important to us in terms of preparing the groundwork for the presentation of the collection in our renewed museum. It is already certain that Wouters, together with James Ensor, will be presented as one of the anchors of the twentiethcentury art collection.
That it pays to bring together collections, research and expertise from two leading European museums is amply demonstrated in this retrospective of the œuvre of Rik Wouters. Together, the two museums have an incredible ensemble of works by this artist – (inter) nationally one of the greatest artistic talents of his generation – whose promise was never quite fulfilled due to his untimely death. At the same time, the artist has garnered an almost legendary reputation, particularly in Belgium – and more specifically in Flanders, where he remains a public favourite to this day. And rightly so.
The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen has not only an important but also a large collection of Wouters: no less than 26 paintings, 19 sculptures, and 63 drawings and watercolours. Almost immediately after the death of the artist and after the end of the First World War, the museum began actively collecting his work. Nearly all the chief curators have been able to add works to the collection: Paul Buschmann, Arthur Cornette, Ary Delen (a friend of the artist) and Walther Vanbeselaere, up to and including Lydia Schoonbaert. In addition, my predecessors succeeded in convincing art-lovers and collectors from the association Kunst van Heden (1905–50) to give donations and bequests, among them Frans and Charles Franck and Enrique Mistler. Later, the extensive legacy of Baron Dr. Ludo Van Bogaert-Sheid (Sheid is the name of his wife) in 1989 was of exceptional significance: among other things, 13 paintings, including iconic works such as The ravine and Self-portrait with a black eye patch.
The two museums have a long tradition of researching Belgian art from the twentieth century, and both can rely on a considerable store of relevant in-house expertise. Moreover, the express wish of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium to co-organise a retrospective on Rik Wouters came at an opportune time for the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. The museum is closed at present – on its way to becoming an entirely new, renovated museum that will reopen in 2019. For this reason, now more than ever, our collection is available for important and substantively meaningful projects. In fact we have been particularly active with respect to Rik Wouters over the last two years. Together with partner museums in Belgium and abroad, we organised three exhibitions: Colour unleashed. Modern art in the Low Countries (1885–1914) (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, from 3 October 2015 to 3 January 2016), Zot geweld / Dwaze maagd (Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen, from 26 August to 11 December 2016) and Rik Wouters & the private utopia (MoMu in Antwerp, from 17 September 2016 to 26 February 2017). In these exhibitions, the artistic and cultural-historical context as well as the surprising topicality of Wouters’ art have been re-examined and placed in a different light, each time afresh. Rather strikingly, the exhibition in The Hague managed to introduce Wouters (once again) as an artist of major importance to a broad Dutch public.
The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen is delighted with this collaboration. On behalf of the management and all employees, I would like to sincerely thank Michel Draguet and his staff, and extend our compliments. A heartfelt word of thanks goes to Frederik Leen and Herwig Todts, who guided the substantive content of this project from Brussels and Antwerp, respectively. But of course countless employees in both museums were involved – and I would like to thank them here as well. A special thanks goes to all the lenders who were willing to enrich our combined collections with just as many important works from other museums and private collections. The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen hopes that this cooperation is the herald of new projects in which our common cultural heritage and combined collections will continue to be highlighted and explored. Our public stands only to gain.
9
Well-Tempered Avant-Gardist
W E L L- T E M P E R E D A V A N T - G A R D I S T <
cat. 26, detail
Ironing
In statu nascendi
The Work of Art in the Making and the Uncompleted Life of Rik Wouters
FREDERIK LEEN
‘Experience teaches us that all works which are meant to be viewed from a distance – whether they be paintings, sculptures or any similar thing whatsoever – are more impressive and powerful if they are made after the fashion of beautiful sketches than if they are highly finished.’ Giorgio Vasari, 15501
Rik Wouters, Well-Tempered Avant-Gardist In March 1914, Sander Pierron wrote of Rik Wouters in L’Indépendance belge: ‘He changes his subjects and tools constantly. He sets aside a barely finished painting to start on a sculpture, which he leaves behind in the design stage to make an etching.’2 Pierron, an alert and critical observer of contemporary art, was positively inclined towards Wouters, in spite of the prickly remarks interspersed throughout the text. Even with the snippy remarks in the margins, the article is still one of the most competent contemporary syntheses of Wouters’ art. This is evident from the fact that Pierron, apart from a few indirect jabs at Ensor, Forain, Cézanne, Vuillard, Van Gogh and Gauguin – all in one sentence! – nonetheless concentrates on the intrinsic qualities of Wouters’ art.
1
Vasari 1998, p. 74. Original text in the biography of Luca della Robbia: ‘Alla quale cosa deono molto avere avvertenza gl’artefici, perciò che la sperienza fa conoscere che tutte le cose che vanno lontane – o siano pitture o siano sculture o qualsivoglia altra somigliante cosa hanno più fierezza e maggior forza se sono una bella bozza che se sono finite.’ English translation adapted from Gaston du C. De Vere, Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects (London: MacMillan, 1912–1915).
2
‘Il change sans cesse de motif et d’outil, lâchant une peinture à peine esquissée pour entreprendre une sculpture, qu’il laissera à l’état d’ébauche pour se mettre à graver une eau-forte.’ Pierron 1914, p. 3, cited in translation in Bertrand 2000, p. 326.
13
Paintings
PA I N T I N GS <
cat. 23, detail
Woman in an interior [Interior A]
Rik Wouters as a Painter of Light and Colour*
S T E FA A N H AU T E K E E T E
A century after the death of Rik Wouters, most facets of his oeuvre have been dealt with in a number of publications. In recent decades, Olivier Bertrand, Kurt De Boodt and Eric Min have brought many additional, previously unknown biographical details to light. 1 But a number of questions will probably remain unanswered for all time. Why, for example, did Wouters take lessons at the academies in Mechelen (from 1897 to 1901) and Brussels (from 1900 to 1905) in sculpture, but scarcely any in painting, an art form that he found equally fascinating and that will be the subject of our essay? As a youth of seventeen, Wouters took lessons in ‘drawing after live models’ from Jan Willem Rosier. Himself a painter and director of the Mechelen academy, Rosier probably allowed some students in his drawing lessons to execute painted studies as well, and perhaps he also gave them some technical instruction. Portrait of a man (1899–1902, cat. 3) and Kobe of Mechelen (1899–1902, cat. 2) are quite competent head studies from this period, traditional in terms of composition, but already showing signs of talent. Kobe was a well-known Mechelen vagabond who posed for local artists, among them the sculptor Théo Blickx, who was seven years older than Wouters. Wouters’ father, a furniture maker in whose studio Blickx had worked, asked him to help his son during the latter’s studies at the Mechelen academy. Rik enjoyed going to Blickx’s
* This article is largely based on my book, Rik Wouters. Ontwikkeling en betekenis van het picturale œuvre, Antwerp, 1997, in which all aspects of Wouters’ pictorial œuvre are discussed in more detail. The dates given in this essay are based on this same work, and may in some cases differ from those indicated in the catalogue captions. 1
See bibliography, pp. 293-297.
33
Works on Paper
W O RKS O N PA P ER <
cat. 109, detail
Cavalcade on Hoogbrug in Mechelen [Opsinjoorke]
Line, Form and Colour: Introductory Reflections on a Choice of Works on Paper
INGA ROSSISCHRIMPF
What if one considered the painter and sculptor Rik Wouters intrinsically as a draughtsman and watercolourist?1 When Wouters started his career, artistic experimentation with wet or dry techniques on paper were no longer subordinated to painting or sculpture. Over the course of the nineteenth century, drawing and printmaking underwent changes that increasingly blurred the boundaries between drawing and painting, such that the traditional perception of drawing as preparatory work and printmaking as primarily an art of reproduction were no longer automatically accepted. Some of the great names in Belgian art around 1900 worked mainly or largely ‘on paper’. They include Félicien Rops, Fernand Khnopff, Jean Delville, William Degouve de Nuncques and, somewhat later, Léon Spilliaert. The painter James Ensor, often mentioned in connection with Wouters, made his international reputation first through the dissemination of his numerous prints. From the turn of the century onwards, drawings and prints were recognised as an autonomous art form and shown at national and international exhibitions. They hung in galleries, formed part of private collections and were soon collected by public institutions. With Rik Wouters, it should come as no surprise that, in addition to drawing exercises and purely preparatory drawings, we also find large works on paper that are the equivalent of paintings – such as pastels (cat. 74) – from 1906 onwards. In terms of his choice of technique as well as aesthetic, Wouters aligned himself with his predecessors of the Belgian fin de siècle, but would then set aside pastels for several years, to draw primarily with pen and charcoal.
1
Wouters produced numerous drawings, watercolours, pastels and etchings. Nevertheless, his work is usually approached as that of a painter and/or sculptor. See the bibliography on pp. 293-297.
129
Sculptures
SCULPTURES <
cat. 191, detail
Woman in the sun [In the sun]
The Impressionist Sculpture of Rik Wouters: On the Threshold of a New Era
FR A N C IS C A VA N D E PI T T E
In a coda to Lust for Life, Herwig Todts cautiously hauls out a forgotten statement suggesting that Rik Wouters was not at the origins but at the end of a lengthy, broad artistic development.1 In this view, the lively artistic creation of this gentle avant-gardist is more the crowning achievement of nineteenth-century impressionism than the fresh, innovative impulse in Belgian fine arts at the beginning of the twentieth century for which he is famous. In this essay I would like to pause and reflect critically on Woutersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sculptural Ĺ&#x201C;uvre by comparing it to the prevailing social and artistic context of the two decades preceding the First World War. In doing so I hope not only to be able to describe its historical significance more accurately, but also to elucidate more clearly from an art-theoretical perspective the complex relationship between his sculpture and his painting.
1
Todts in Mechelen - Antwerp 2016-17, p. 81.
203
SCULPTURES
211
SCULPTURES
fig. 33
Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, Penelope Penelope,, 1907, bronze, 240 × 84 × 71 cm, Musée Bourdelle, Paris, Inv. MB br.1852
215
RIK WOUTERS
196
Mad virgin, virgin, (1912), bronze, 195 × 115 × 130 cm, Brussels, Musée d’Ixelles, inv. CC1251
244
Wouters in the World of Art
WOUTERS IN THE WORLD OF ART <
cat. 51, detail
The ravine A
Craving a Place in the Canon: On the Reception of the Work of Rik Wouters
HERWIG TODTS
Fortune or Fame In 1902 Rik Wouters studied at the academy in Brussels. There he made the acquaintance of Hélène ‘Nel’ Duerinckx. In the memoirs she wrote nearly forty years later, Nel recalls how, as an apparently spirited girl of sixteen, she met and flirted with a young academy student at a party. The next day they went for a walk together, kissed, and Rik revealed to his beloved that unfortunately he was only a poor man, but that he wanted to become a great painter and a great sculptor. He asked her if she was prepared to live a life of poverty and sacrifice with him. Or if she would not moan when they went hungry, because, Rik is supposed to have said to her, ‘[b]efore I am a great artist, we will suffer a great deal of misery.’1 Hans Abbing, professor emeritus at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and himself an artist, has as an economist conducted a thorough study into the question of why modern Western artists, voluntarily and in great numbers, choose to live in poverty. In 2002 Abbing published the study Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts.2 The book starts from the observation that, compared with other professional categories, an exceptional
1
Min 2011, pp. 47–48. The anecdote comes from Souvenirs inédits de Madame Wouters (1917–1952), the manuscript of which is preserved in the Royal Library in Brussels. The manuscript was moreover published in Wouters 1944.
2
Hans Abbing studied fine arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and economics at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Before he taught as a professor in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, he worked for many years as an administrator at the Ministry of Culture, a vantage point from which he was able to study closely the policies governing the distribution of subsidies in the arts and to artists.
253
WOUTERS IN THE WORLD OF ART <
fig. 40, detail
Contemporary copy or draught version of the contract Giroux-Wouters
Rik Wouters and Georges Giroux: The Artist and the Gallery Owner
OLIVIER BERTRAND
The Revival of the Belgian Art Market Over half a century after its closure in 1960, the Galerie Georges Giroux, named after its founder,1 remains prominent in the academic world and the art market. The Galerie Giroux played a key role in cultural life in Brussels, and made a considerable contribution to the development of the art market in Belgium. It was inaugurated on the Rue Royale, on 16 March 1912, by Georges Giroux, a Frenchman living in Brussels, and exhibited the works of a heterogeneous group of artists that included, amongst others Auguste Oleffe, Marcel Jefferys, Willem Paerels and Louis Thévenet. And, of course, Rik Wouters. On this occasion, the latter exhibited sculptures, including the Mad virgin (fig. 37), along with drawings, etchings, and several paintings (fig. 38), such as Mushrooms (cat. 22). Over the years, by supporting and promoting their work, the Galerie Georges Giroux has influenced the lives of several artists by supporting and promoting their work, and it has influenced the lives of several artists – including Rik Wouters – while participating in the ‘minor’ history of art in Belgium, particularly via the famous ‘Brabantine fauvism’. The gallery’s exhibitions and auctions also enabled many Belgian collectors and national museums to enrich their collections with works of the highest quality. We have identified over 50,000 sculptures and pictorial works that have passed through the public auctions held regularly by the Galerie Giroux between
1
Antoine Philibert Giroux, more commonly called Georges Giroux, was born on 25 August 1868 in Mâcon, in the Saône-et-Loire département. He died on 30 September 1923, in Brussels.
267
Appendices
A P P E N D I C E S - Biography
Biography RIK WOUTERS (1882–1916) OLIVIER BERTRAND
His early training and the first competitions (1899–1907) Born in Mechelen on 21 August 1882, Henri (known as Rik) Wouters began his artistic training at the age of twelve with his father, who ran a furniture business, a sector that had established the city’s reputation. Working alongside Ernest, Ferdinand and Frans Wijnants, also apprentices in his father’s workshop, Rik focused on the ornamental elements. After his three-year apprenticeship and given his vocation for art in general, and particularly for sculpture, he decided to follow a more ar tistic training programme. In 1897, he enrolled at the Fine Arts Academy in Mechelen, where he was taught, until 1901, by Théo Blickx, an artist from Mechelen with whom he struck up a friendship. In 1900, encouraged by his mentor, Wouters enrolled at the Academy in Brussels, where he attended the ‘life sculpture’ course held by Charles Van der Stappen, a well-known teacher and artist. At that time, the young artist, as yet lacking in inspiration, adhered to the academic constraints and allegorical subject matter presented in the art competitions. In 1902, when he joined the army in the Compagnie Universitaire, he was able to continue his academic training through evening classes, while taking part in military exercises.
Wouters meets Nel In 1904, he met Hélène Duerinckx, who was sixteen and was already known as Nel. She posed for famous artists such as Philippe Wolfers and Jacques de Lalaing. Wouters subsequently met Ferdinand Schirren, Edgard Tytgat, Anne-Pierre de Kat and Jean Brusselmans. Rik and Nel went out together, and she posed for the young artist and became his muse (fig. 43). They were married on 15 April 1905 and moved to Watermael, in the suburbs of Brussels. Their living conditions there were so miserable that they were forced to go to Mechelen and move in with Wouters’ father. This setback was humiliating: Nel became the family servant and Rik, who worked in part of his father’s workshop, found it difficult to achieve his goals. During this fifteen-month stay in Mechelen he took part in his first exhibition, with the De Distel (The Thistle) circle of artists, in February 1906. He exhibited a dozen works in different media: oil painting, charcoal, pastels and sculpture. His exhibition was not successful. Only his large figure, The nymph (fig. 44), begun at Watermael and an early attempt to break away from academic constraints, survived this destructive phase, but he left it unfinished at Mechelen.
fig. 42
Rik Wouters in front of The butterfly, 1915, Amsterdam, Private Collection
279
Acknowledgements The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium would like to extend special thanks to Professor Dr. Manfred Sellink, general director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, along with his Department of Collections and Department of Marketing, Communications and Education, for their generous loan to this exhibition and their warm and benevolant cooperation. We would also like to thank all the lenders, collectors and directors of public and private institutions for their generous cooperation, without which this exhibition would not have been possible: Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, Jane Turner, Head of the Rijksprentenkabinet Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Beatrix Ruf, Director Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Prof. Dr. Manfred Sellink, General Director Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus, UNESCO World Heritage, Iris Kockelbergh, Director Belfius Art Collection, Bénédicte Bouton, Head of Culture Olivier Bertrand BNP Paribas Fortis, Dominique Van Hove, Head of Arts Collection & Historical Archives Bruges, Musea Brugge, Groeningemuseum, Till-Holger Borchert, Director Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Patrick Lefèvre, General Director Brussels, Van Buuren Museum and Garden, Isabelle Anspach, Director Brussels, Musée Communal d’Ixelles, Claire Leblanc, Curator – Director Deurle, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Joost Declercq, Director Gent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Catherine de Zegher, Director Liège, Musées de la Ville de Liège, Jean-Marc Gay, Director Liège, Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Boverie, Régine Rémon, 1st Curator Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou – Musée national d’Art Moderne, Bernard Blistène, Director Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Bruno Girveau, Director Stad Mechelen – Musea & Erfgoed, Anouk Stulens and Sigrid Bosmans, Directors The Louis & Evelyn Franck Collection. The Phoebus Foundation, Katharina Van Cauteren, Head of Staff As well as all those who preferred to remain anonymous. We also thank all those who aided the museums’ research and who offered precious assistance in the mounting of the exhibition and production of the catalogue: Stefan Campo, Anne Carre, Veerle De Meester, Cynthia De Moté, Liesbeth De Ridder, Vincent Fierens, Judith Goris, Marijke Hellemans, Martine Hollenfeltz, Patricia Kolsteeg, Olga Makhroff, Dominique Marechal, Wenke Mast, Moniek Nagels, Birgit Pluvier, David Ryser, Muriel Sacré, Bettina Steg, Bart Stroobants, Martial Trouillez, Nadia Vangampelaer, Joris Van Grieken, Fleur van Paassen. And Recyclart-Fabrik.
RIK WOUTERS A RETROSPECTIVE Rik Wouters – a major European artist and an incredible revelation, who was born in Mechelen in 1882 – mastered painting, sculpture, and drawing. He has left us with a brilliant and colourful œuvre that is far removed from the dramas that marked his life until his premature death in 1916, at the age of thirty-three. Traditionally considered the leading figure of ‘Brabançon Fauvism’, Rik Wouters produced works in a whole range of colours and on authentic, simple, and moving themes. He nevertheless embodies an avant-garde style, while being linked with Ensor, Cézanne, and Renoir. His incredible talent has left us with the fascinating and masterful artistic heritage of an undisputed master of Modern Art in Belgium.
ISBN 978-2-7572-1281-3