Constant Permeke

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his death, BOZAR presents a major retrospective of 130 works by the Flemish expressionist.

Marlene Dumas and Thierry De Cordier offer a contemporary vision of some of the themes explored by Permeke in the course of his career.

Constant Permeke (1886–1952) could be described as the most authentic artist of Flanders of his time. Along with Gust De Smet and Frits Van den Berghe, he was one of the most important representatives of Flemish expressionism, also known as the second ‘school’ of Latem.

The exhibition presents, chronologically and thematically, more than 130 paintings, drawings, and sculptures that reveal every facet of the major themes in Permeke's oeuvre. For Permeke, expressionism was more an attitude to life than a style. His approach to art was, above all, instinctive: he aimed to make visible the "profoundly human". Permeke had no equal when it came to depicting the hard life of the ordinary working people, from the fishermen of Ostend to the rural life of a peasant in Jabbeke. The intimate "primal bond" that these people maintained with the land and the sea fascinated him. Other recurring motifs in Permeke's work include female nudes, the woman as a symbol of fertility, motherhood, the family, and the organic connection between humanity and nature.

Some of the key works in the exhibition are: Vissersvrouw (1920 – Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp), Het Dagelijks Brood (1950 – Mu.Zee, Ostend), Over Permeke (1922 – Mu.Zee, Ostend), De Verloofden (1923 – Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels), Liggende Boer (1928 – Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent), Marie-Lou (1936 – Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp), De Papeter (1922 – Groeninge Museum, Bruges), and De Stal (1933 – Centre Pompidou, Paris).

By enlargement, synthesis, and abstraction, Permeke created archetypes with a monumental and universal character. Despite his strong regional roots and the interest he took in the lives of ordinary people, his work has a universal significance, arising from his constant quest for meaning and the essence of life. He developed an oeuvre, strongly grounded in intuition, that was never illustrative, narrative, or anecdotal. His work has its own aesthetic logic and can safely be called timeless.

Permeke's style is clearly recognisable: rough forms and lines that often appear cubist (“physical cubism”), in an earthy colour palette. He captures emotions in multiple shades of deep colours and tones, making use of touches of light to further sharpen the focus. There are no external sources of light, rather an inner light that gives an emotional tension to the darker, often almost black areas. Strikingly, it was in the periods that were darkest for him in personal terms (as when he lost his wife and his two children), that he reacted by seeking out the light in his art.

His technique was distinctive: a mixture of painting and drawing, often with charcoal, watercolours enhanced with colour pigments, and chalk mixed with turpentine. His monumental force led him to sculpture, in which he concentrated almost exclusively on the female nude. There is, however, no idealisation of human beauty in Permeke: the focus is on universal humanity.

Permeke's works are flanked by those of two internationally renowned artists: Marlene Dumas and Thierry De Cordier. Their work offers a contemporary view on some of the themes that so moved Permeke: the nude and the natural landscape. Marlene Dumas (born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa) exhibits ten drawings of nudes, while Thierry De Cordier (born in 1954 in Oudenaarde, Belgium) presents eight new landscape paintings, created specially for this exhibition.

The curator of the exhibition is Willy Van den Bussche, honorary chief curator of the PMMK - Museum of Modern Art Ostend (today known as Mu.ZEE) and the Constant Permeke Museum in Jabbeke.

BOZAR will not be the only art institution to commemorate Permeke this autumn: the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp will present, in its Queen Fabiola Hall, De Modernen: Rondom Permeke (15 September 2012 >24 February 2013), while the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels will host Permeke, Van den Berghe, and De Smet and Expressionism.

Constant Permeke
Kurator: Willy Van den Bussche