Flemish Expressionism

At first sight, the Roaring Twenties seem a world away from the Flemish countryside in the aftermath of the First World War. But if you listen carefully, you can hear the strains of jazz crossing the Leie river... The modern world is making inroads, also in the paintings of Gustave De Smet (1877-1943) and Frits Van den Berghe (1883-1939). They were the leading figures in what would come to be known as Flemish Expressionism and brought modern figurative painting in Belgium to its high point. Despite their idiosyncratic oeuvres, they exhibit a coherence in style and vision, especially in their simplification of forms, a strong emphasis on simple rural life and an unmistakable wit. It is the movement's colourful and often mischievous character that takes centre stage at Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The exhibition Flemish Expressionism - Wonderful Memories provides a broad overview of an important period in Flemish art with in addition to the work of Gustave De Smet and Frits Van den Berghe, paintings by Jozef Cantré (1890-1957), Constant Permeke (1886-1952) and Edgard Tytgat (1879-1957).

At the end of the 19th century, Belgium had a progressive and internationally oriented visual arts climate. Strangely enough, by the beginning of the 20th century little of this remained. The modern project became mired in an attractive but no longer innovative tendency called Luminism, with lightweight subjects, painted fleetingly and in pleasing soft tones. The leading exponent of the movement was Emile Claus (1849-1924), but Van den Berghe and De Smet also initially worked in this style. It was only when they fled to the Netherlands, which remained neutral during the First World War, that they came into contact with international modernism, and it wasn’t long before they began to incorporate these influences in their own work.

Upon their return to Belgium in 1922, they discovered that their old friend, Constant Permeke (1886-1952), and other painters had gone through a similar development. Slowly but surely, the modern world was reaching the villages along the Leie – popular with artists since the end of the 19th century – now also through modern art. The artists gathered in the villa of the multifaceted art patron Paul-Gustave Van Hecke (1887-1967). It is in this period that the term Flemish Expressionism was born.  

Flemish Expressionism
Today, the term Flemish Expressionism may seem a little confusing because it immediately evokes an association with German Expressionism. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the term ‘Expressionism’ was regularly applied to many kinds of ‘modern’ art that differed from Impressionism, or in the case of the Leie region, that was distinct from the Luminism of Emile Claus. It was applied not only to the German Expressionists, but also to the French Fauves and Cubists, the Italian Futurists and to the pioneers of abstract art. In this sense, Expressionism was a catch-all name for innovative modern art.