And I think to myself what a wonderful world: In Search of Louis Armstrong's Brussels Collage (original) (raw)
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Dark modernism: Champroux's nocturnal vision of Brussels
2015
In 1935 the photo journalist and cameraman Georges Champroux (1899–1983) assembled 19 black-and-white photographs in a portfolio entitled Bruxelles la nuit, which in many regards recalls Brassaï's famous Paris de nuit. Whereas most night photography of the period celebrates electrical light, speed and metropolitan life, Champroux's portfolio expresses a different urban narrative. The Brussels he shows is tranquil, intimate, dark and full of mystery. This paper argues that Champroux's and Brassaï's photographs were not only a reaction against the radical changes the city underwent at the time, but were also symptoms of the emerging tendency towards a more humane modernism. This article presents an unknown portfolio entitled Bruxelles la nuit, published in 1935 by the Parisian reporter Georges Champroux, who lived and worked in Brussels until his death in 1983. 1 It contains 19 photographs and can be considered a counterpart to Brassaï's illustrious Paris de nuit which appeared three years earlier. Champroux's portfolio is unique in its genre: though night-time Brussels inspired many photographers and other artists, only Champroux dedicated a collection of photographs exclusively to this theme. The genesis of the portfolio is still shrouded in mystery, however; even its date of publication has remained unknown until now. Likewise, biographical information on Champroux is extremely scarce; certain basic facts, including his date of death, are recorded here for the first time. 2 The portfolio will be examined in connection with a hitherto unstudied photo collection from the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (Cegesoma), consisting of 1276 black-and-white photographs by Champroux and another 17,463 photographs from his photo agency Actualit. 3 This case study enables us to approach the subject of
“THOSE WERE EXHILARATING DAYS.” THE EMERGENCE OF AVANT-GARDE IN POST-WAR BELGIUM
Beyond the Great War, Belgium 1918-1928, 2018
In the first decades of the twentieth century, visual arts in Europe are thoroughly transformed, with various new artistic currents quickly succeeding one another. However, as indicated by the either indifferent or mocking reactions to the few modernist views expressed in Belgium, this development only truly materializes in the country after the First World War. The 1912 exhibition featuring Italian Futurism at the Brussels’ Georges Giroux Gallery, for instance, only gets negative reviews in the French-speaking press, while Flanders remains totally silent on the subject. The Great Zwans Exhibition, a 1914 Brussels event ridiculing Futurism and other international innovations, on the other hand, meets with quite some success.
Linen Boxes and Slices: Raoul De Keyser and American Modernism in Belgium in the 1960s and 1970s
Arts, 2021
Before his international breakthrough shortly before the turn of the century, Belgian painter Raoul De Keyser (1930–2012) had a long career that reaches back to the 1960s, when he was associated with Roger Raveel and the so-called Nieuwe Visie (New Vision in Dutch), Belgium’s variation on postwar figurative painting that also entails Anglo-Saxon Pop Art and French nouveau réalisme. Dealing with De Keyser’s works of the 1960s and 1970s, this article discusses the reception of American late-modernist art currents such as Color-Field Painting, Hard Edge, Pop Art, and Minimal Art in Belgium. Drawing on contemporaneous reflections (by, among others, poet and critic Roland Jooris) as well as on recently resurfaced materials from the artist’s personal archives, this essay focuses on the ways innovations associated with these American trends were appropriated by De Keyser, particularly in the production of his so-called Linen Boxes and Slices. Made between 1967 and 1971, Linen Boxes and Sli...
2013
In this article we focus upon the spatiality of the artistic circle Les XX, in Belgium and in Europe. We study the installation of the circle's members in both Brussels and the context of the city's local artistic geography. One zone seems to have been a focus of the group's creative and social life: the suburb of Ixelles, in particular, the neighborhood around the rue de l'Abbaye. This area was home to many artists, including Anna Boch, whose villa became a sort of second home to Les XX. Through cartographic analysis and the description of this environment, we bring into question the possible existence of an artistic neighborhood in Brussels at the turn of the 20 th century. Résumé Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons à la spatialité du cercle des XX, à l'échelle belge et de l'Europe. Nous étudions ensuite l'inscription des vingtistes au sein du territoire bruxellois et de la géographie artistique locale. Un espace semble avoir polarisé la création et...