Contemporary Art & Its Inspirations: Brussels

This was probably the most meaningful exhibitions I have ever seen.

As some of you may know, I am an avid fan of Frida, ever since my Aunt and first Art Teacher, Boo Ehrsam, showed her two me when I was but a wee child.

Naturally, I was completely awestruck at these bizarre, beautiful works. When my Mom came to pick me up from class, I immediately ask her to tell me all about this crazy Mexican woman I had just discovered. (And thus, my Mom had to learn how to explain Frida to a 6 year old...)

I have been waiting a very long time to see her works in person, and am thrilled that my Belgian visit was timed just right.

Frida Kahlo is an all-around inspiration to me, being a thoroughly successful female artists, and having one of the most intriguing, tragic, and adventurous lives. I trust that you have all seen the Frida Movie, staring the beautiful Selma Hayek, so you must surely be familiar with her life (the movie is a rather accurate portrayal) so I will spare you from an incredibly verbose biography (I could go on for days). Instead I will share with you some (almost all) of the pieces from the exhibition (a modest 27 works):

1. El camion (The Bus), 1929

2. Retrato de Alicia Galant (Portrait of Alicia Galant), 1927

3. La nina Virginia (Portrait of Virginia), 1929

4. Retrato de Luther Burbank, 1931

5. Retrato de Eva Frederick, 1931

7. Autorretrato con changuito (Self-Portrait with Small Monkey), 1945

8. Hospital Henry Ford, 1932

9. Frida y el aborto (Frida and the Miscarriage), 1932

10. Unos cuantos piquetitos (A Few Small Nips), 1935

11. Mi nana y yo (My Nurse and I), 1937

12. El difuntito Dimas Rosas a los tres anos de edad

(The Deceased Dimas Rosa at the Age of Three), 1937

13. El pollito (The Chick), 1945

15. La columna rota (The Broken Column), 1944

16. Sin esperanza (Hopeless), 1945

17. La flor de a vida (The Flower of Life), 1944

18. El circulo (The Circle), ca. 1954

21. Fantasy, 1944

24. La mascara (de la locura) (The Mask of Madness), 1945

25. Retrato del ingeniero Eduardo Morillo Safa, 1944

26. Retrato de dona Rosita Morillo, 1944

El diario de Frida Kahlo (Frida Kahlo's Diary), 1944-54

slideshow of sketchbook and photographs

I was fortunate enough to pay a second visit to this exhibition, in which I really got to experience the work itself, instead of feverishly writing and being shoved about in the throws of on-lookers. I was surprised at the size of some of her works; much smaller than what I imagined. But size aside, this was powerful retrospective.

Until Next Time

-Laura

I recently made a trip to Brussels to visit several exhibitions/museums, one of which being the new Magritte Museum (in conjunction with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium).

Musee Magritte Museum if fortified with a vast collection of his works, representing all periods for a versatile and complete retrospective. The museum is merely a branch of the vast of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, which has slowly been acquiring Magritte's life's work via purchases and donations. 40 years after the artist's life, he museum opened its doors in May 2009. The exhibition also includes many works of Magritte's comrades and contemporaries, as well as magazine clippings, publications, posters, photographs, etc. documenting the artist's life.

Magritte is without stating, one of the most influential surrealists and Belgian artist of all time. His work is one so commonly known by people from all walks of life; a name as recognizable (or works, rather) as the likes of Picasso, Dali, Kahlo. It was a pleasure bearing witness to some of his works. His works have always been those that I have known and admired, but my interest has been fully renewed and I have found great inspiration. Magritte was an artist with a voracious appetite for creating works, absorbing thoughts ideas, and experimenting with some of the most controversial art movements in Modernism .

The collection is divided into 3 sections

1898::1929

Following Magritte's work through his earliest encounters with art (impressionistic in style), studies at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts (1916-1918), his constructivist period, encounters with the '7 Arts' group, futurism, cubism, and his first encounter with surrealism (works of de Chirico), Antwerps avant-garde, his marriage to Georgette, moving to Paris and his friendships with the likes of Andre Breton, Louise Aragon, E.L.T. Mensens, Paul Nouge, Camille Goemans, etc.

*Portrait of Pierre Bourgeois

1920

*Drawing of Georgette

1924

Untitled Collage

1926

Panorama Populaire

1926

[a personal favorite]

*Les Prince de Objects

1927

L'Usage de La Parole

1927

[an example of his Words and Images]

*Muscles of the Sky

1927

Samuels Catalogue

1927

[prime example of Magritte drawing; applied to advertisement and illustration]

*Portrait of Paul Nouge

1927

False Mirror

1928

La Trahison des Images

1928-29

*The Treachery of Images (This Continues to Not Be a Pipe)

1952

1930::1950

Magritte's return to Brussels, "Idiotic Works" (advertising), Concept of image and its repetition, Communist Party in Belgium, Laying low during WW2; 'sunlight' surrealism, 'Vache' period, etc.