IN TIMES OF CHANGE: Selected art from the KBC Collection

The closing years of the nineteenth century saw the European art undergoing a metamorphosis. This began in France, where Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise (1872) became the image of international Impressionism and of modern art. At the end of the century, Belgium was Europe’s most industrialized country. A prosperous middle class arose there that had great thirst for culture. Patrons came forward and exhibitions attracted the public at large.

In European art, a pioneering role was played by the Belgian artist James Ensor, who initially inclined towards Impressionism, experimenting with light and color. Ensor shared some ground also with Symbolism, coming up with his own creations — demons, masks and other strange shapes and beings. Eventually he came to be seen as a forerunner of both Expressionism and Surrealism, two styles that reached their apogee during the inter-war period and two of whose Belgian representatives — Constant Permeke and René Magritte — gained international recognition. Also occupying a unique niche were the Brabant Colorists, whose style owed much to Fauvism; these artists, who had their zenith before the First World War, sought to achieve a subtler balance between color and design.

In the 1920s Europe’s artistic life went through a revival, with Expressionism and Surrealism followed by Abstract art, a movement that took on a variety of forms. After the Second World War, culture was given a new lease of life in Belgium. In 1951 the experimental group Cobra disbanded, an event that signaled the end of Belgian art’s Modern Phase. The group nevertheless had already paved the way for the type of contemporary art that stemmed from America with Abstract Expressionism.

Thе exhibition presents the star works of a number of Belgian artists such as James Ensor, Felicien Rops, Gustave van de Woestijne, Rik Wouters, Leon Spilliaert, Constant Permeke and René Magritte, as well as other representatives of a period of great significance in Belgium’s art.