Imagenes del Mexicano

As the cornerstone exhibition at Bozar’s massive Mexico Festival, Imágenes del Mexicano has the daunting task of depicting Mexico’s complicated history and vibrant culture in 150 works from native as well as international artists.

Mexico’s rich heritage and perpetual quest for its own identity creates a fascinating and diverse experience that incorporates paintings, photography, movies and sculpture. The emphasis, however, lies on portraits: the many faces of Mexico’s population collectively create both a realistic and soulful interpretation of the country’s social and cultural voyage.

You start with its pre-Columbian past, illustrated by a unique collection of Aztec sculptures and Olmec heads. These symbolic representations of important themes of religious worship and day-to-day life lead us to the next stage, race and class in one of Spain’s new colonies.

The caste or castas system was a very important part of society, resulting in opposing portraits of 16th-century aristocrats and Mexico’s indigenous peoples.As more immigrants started coming to the blossoming country, certain stereotypes, such as the image of the rural, working-class peasant, were created. These stereotypes would become an important part of Mexican folklore, and of Imágenes del Mexicano, as they also promote the cultural nationalism that led this ever-changing country further down the road towards independence.

Besides highlighting several historical changes, the exhibition also has a keen eye for the social. An entire room is dedicated to death (La Calaca) and another to the funeral portrait, which is a specific genre in 19th-century Mexican art. Death is an important part of life in Mexican culture and should be celebrated, not mourned.

As we get closer to the images of contemporary Mexico, photographs and film are scattered across the exhibition, mixing a 3,000 year-old heritage and a continuously evolving future. One of the most engaging installations is master Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s ¡Que Viva Mexico!, an allegorical evocation of the Mexican Revolution. Another highlight is Tina Modotti’s photo series of the women from the Tehuantepec isthmus, which gives a raw yet elegant depiction of every-day life.

Finally, the modern gallery of Mexican portraits offers a multifaceted view of the present-day Mexican identity. These portraits, which are vibrant yet often dark and brooding, shed light on Mexico’s psychological and cultural development. Occasionally adding surreal sentiment to the equation, these works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, to name a few, are engaging and enlightening.

Flanders Today March 3 2011

More than meets the eye

Stefan Annerel’s new exhibition is a deceptive mix of simplicity and splendour

Photographic reproductions, such as you see on this page, don’t do Stefan Annerel’s work justice. Sure, pictures capture the vibrant colours and intricate structure, but these are works that have to be encountered face-toface to truly appreciate their dazzling beauty and hidden depths. For lack of a better word, they have to be experienced.

Four years ago, the Antwerp-based painter accidently discovered a technique that would make his work and career blossom. “Adding resin to my works made them very glossy and, hence, tactile. It transforms the multiple layers and colours and adds an entirely new dimension,” he tells me at the opening of his new show Counterchange in Antwerp’s Kusseneers Gallery.

The first thing that strikes you about Annerel’s works is indeed their unexpected gloss, which

is complimented by rich colours and bold, constructivist patterns. They exude sumptuous sophistication despite seeming quite simple. Take a closer look, and you find that this isn’t our average two-dimensional canvas. Annerel work is in multiple layers, turned into a whole due to the resin. They beg to be viewed from different angles; new aspects are revealed, luring you deeper into each painting and into the wonder of their creation.

Annerel’s technique is exceptional. “I get myinspiration from advertisements in magazines,

pieces of fabric, even very trivial things like the typical pattern of the bag that most people carry

their laundry to the launderette in,” he explains. “I extract a piece, take it out of its original context and create a collage. By adding several layers of paint, paper or plastic on top, I not only

expand its original form but also its colours, creating an illusion of fact and fiction.” Finally, he’s applies the resin to all of the layers. The resin is what is responsible for a contrast that

adds both gloss and an almost tangible depth to the pieces. These two characteristics together make the artist’s work very distinguishable.

“If you stare at something like a detail in a photograph long enough, it detaches itself from its original meaning and gains a whole new one,” Annerel continues. This play on reality is also one of the key features in his work. The mundane titbits that influenced him are not only immortalised but are transformed into an experience reminiscent of a fading memory.

Annerel’s works are like mysteries waiting to be unravelled, but at the same time, any true meaning seems to stay beyond our grasp. The result is an enchanting web of multiple associations. Their titles, however, may help guide you in the right direction.

The title Counterchange refers to a weaving technique that inspired Annerel to create works that incorporate similar patterns. He transforms a figurative element into an abstract masterpiece

with a dash of trompe l’oeil.

Flanders Today February 10 2011

Postcards from Brussels

Dave McKean is a Renaissance man. The multi award-winning illustrator and comic book artist is: a filmmaker (visionary), a photographer (haunting), a graphic designer (inventive) and, last but not least, a musician (jazz pianist).

Heis probably most famous for his numerous collaborations with fellow Brit and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. Together the 40- somethings have created cult classic graphic novels like The Sandman series and Black Orchid. Most recently, McKean illustrated Gaiman’s celebrated children’s novel The Graveyard Book, and he also created the images for Gaiman’s now-immortalised 2002 novella Coraline.

McKean's style is not just unique, it’s downright uncanny. By incorporating techniques such as painting, drawing, collage and found objects, he transforms simple yet surreal images into snapshots of anguish and beauty. His directorial debut, Mirrormask, is an exceptional example of his love for mixed media and illustrates his trademark magical cum ominous, out-of-this-world quality.

Postcards from Brussels – the title says it all – is a compelling exhibition for us Belgians. The fourth in a series (after Vienna, Paris and Barcelona), it is based on McKean's stay in our wonderful – and dirty and hodgepodge – capital last year. Images from Brussels, like the infamous Manneken Pis, become dreamlike, aided by the simple elegance of pen-and-ink. Pages from his own graphic novel Cages are also featured in this show at Petits Papiers in Brussels.

There are also several of McKean’s mesmerizing nitrate paintings. These larger and darker works are a combination of oil paint, papier-mâché, collage and glued on objects like leaves, rocks and even dolls that create a kind of relief sculpture. With qualities both scattered and artificial, these disturbing portrayals of the human psyche jump out and grab you by the throat.

The icing on the cake, however, is a painting of Coraline. Yes, that would be the same Coraline that is now a 3D stop-motion movie by Henry Selick, now playing across Belgium (and the rest of the world).

The painting on show beautifully illustrates the duality in not only the character but in the story of a girl who finds a peculiar door in a room of her parents’ new, rambling country home. Behind it is a portal to... her own house. But nothing there is quite like it should be.

Flanders Today June 17 2009

Seeing the light

Ghent celebrates the master of Belgian Impressionism

When we think of Impressionism, our minds naturally wander to Monet, Renoir and Pissarro... the frontrunners of this suggestive and often delicate art movement. But, although it originated in France, we don’t have to cross the border to witness one prime example: Belgium’s own Emile Claus was a master Impressionist in his own right.

Born in 1849 West Flanders, Claus started out painting portraits and realistic genre pieces, but, after encountering the work of Claude Monet on a trip to Paris, his style changed from naturalistic realism to his own interpretation of Impressionism. His new approach wasn’t just a turning point in his own career but also in history: he became the leader of Luminism, a style in which natural light is emphasised by using breaks and shadows that create an authentic and vibrant atmosphere.

The Fine Arts Museum in Ghent is housing the spectacular exhibition Emile Claus and Rural Life that mainly focuses on Claus’ interpretations of his own countryside. You’ll find not just the painter’s best work, ranging from sketches to oil paintings, but also an exceptionally clear overview highlighting the central themes of his oeuvre, plus an accompanying collection of other Belgian artists of his day, including expressionist sculpture and painter Constant Permeke, painter Valerius De Saedeleer and painter and architect Henry van de Velde. Experiencing them all side-by-side sheds light on the artistic and social influences on Belgium during the late 19th century.

Claus occasionally made portraits of family and friends, works that are clear representatives of his early and more classic style. But his enduring fame rests on the landscapes.

The paintings from Astene, on the banks of the river Lys, where Claus moved in 1882, establish nature as a primary element in his work. Represented with soft watercolours, nature itself is almost romantic. Cities didn’t really catch his fancy with the remarkable exception of a series of views of the Thames that he painted in London as a refugee during the First World War. Here especially, Monet’s influence is visible.

Rural society is also predominant, and his fascination with the ordinary man is illustrated in countless representations of farm labourers and villagers. Hard labour wasn’t the focus of Claus’ paintings, but rather the farmers’ harmonious presence in nature. He often contrasts this lower social class with the gentry by isolating certain figures and depicting their hardships or pleasantries in great detail.

Later, he evolved to more general pieces where man becomes subordinate to the overall lustre of the landscape, which was enhanced by stunning light effects. These effects become the soul of his work and make paintings like “Cows wading the River Lys” literally come to life. Fragile light breaks and a unique use of shadow make the waves almost tangible.

Another highlight is his most famous painting, “The Skaters”, in which he refers to the old Flemish and Dutch tradition of winter landscapes. This particular landscape may be bare, but look closer and you’ll find a symphony of light and colour that perfectly captures the authenticity of a cold winter day.

The exhibition ends with Claus’ pure landscapes, a mixture of Impressionism and the then revolutionary Pointillism. Although his technique was evolving, his passion for atmosphere still prevailed – a passion that, combined with Luminism, became the essence of Emile Claus.

Flanders Today May 13 2009

Masking the inhuman in us all

Antwerp’s Fine Arts Museum links three masters of the grotesque.

Goya, Redon, Ensor. At first glance, these three renowned painters have very little in common. But when you delve a little deeper into these eclectic oeuvres, you’ll notice their mutual fascination and depiction of the grotesque is as remarkable theme that links these three diverse artists and forms the basis of this extraordinary exhibition in Antwerp.

On entering the show at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, you’re confronted with a line from Victor Hugo’s Cromwell: “The grotesque will play the role of the beast in man”. A taste of things to come.

All three artists were each in his own right pioneers of modern art. Goya portrayed inner turmoil and the horror of his era, Redon became one of the leading symbolists with his bizarre and fantastical drawings, and Ensor, slowly but surely, banished all realism from his colourful and very expressive paintings.

The influence of Goya, a former 18thcentury Spanish court painter, on the 19th century Redon and Ensor was immense. They were inspired by his morbid and absurd combinations of demons, devils and anguish. An entire room is dedicated to his sinister etchings of human Folly, where Goya portrays the darker side of human nature in all its shapes and sizes, often covered up with masks – a notion that was revived in Ensor’s later work.

The exhibition alternates light rooms with darker ones, suggesting that you are entering the belly of the beast. Redon figures heavily in the darker, more intimate spaces. The French painter and printmaker’s work is simple yet symbolic, melancholy yet surreal. The morbid constructions enhance the monster-filled dream world of this mad genius – a place both brutal and surprisingly peaceful.

Finally, our own Belgian Ensor, whose love for bright colours and masks have made him legendary. Not only masks but also faces are hidden in the most surprising places in his drawings and vivid paintings. He sought to emphasise the ornamental aspect of the grotesque, literally masking the hidden truths of humanity. Together with Redon, he is also responsible for the highlight of the exhibition, a series of disquieting drawings inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

The Museum of Fine Arts, which already holds the majority of Ensor’s work, gathered many of the other paintings, drawings and prints from around the globe. Goya, Redon, Ensor is an ideal run up to the 2010 Ensor Year.

Flanders Today April 8 2009