Modernisme

de Johan de Smet, Liesbeth Decan

In this book, the Belgian historical avant-garde around 1920 is viewed for the first time from a broader European perspective. Not only did protagonists like Jules Schmalzigaug, Georges Vantongerloo and Marthe Donas establish an immediate link with Italian futurism, the 'Nieuwe Beelding' (or neoplasticism) and post-cubism, but in 1920 Karel Maes, Jozef Peeters and Victor Servranckx began to play a prominent role in European constructivism. The pursuit of a community art was not restricted to visual art, as evidenced by architecture and applied art, but also literature, music and the performing arts. Belgian photography and films were also a reflection of international modernism. In this book Belgium's earliest abstract artists are juxtaposed for the first time with like-minded foreign artists such as Fernand Léger, László Moholy-Nagy, Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg. Exhibition: Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium (2.3.-30.6.2013).