Erich Heckel in Vlaanderen (MSK)
Lieven Van Den Abeele
Mercatorfonds & Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2024
€60,00
On Monday 8 March 1915, a young artist steps out of the train in Gent-Sint-Pieters that had left Berlin. On the way, he has seen the devastated city of Leuven pass by. That same day, he travels on to Roeselare, where he is met by Red Cross volunteers. The First World War has been going on for seven months and will continue for years to come.
In 1905, Erich Heckel (1883–1970) was one of the founders of the artists’ group Brücke in Dresden. Together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, he is one of the greats of German Expressionism. During the almost four years he spent in Flanders, he made seventy-five paintings, hundreds of drawings and watercolours and numerous sheets of graphic work. His powerful woodcuts became the benchmark for Expressionist graphics in Germany and far beyond.
This book tells the story of this lesser-known period in Heckel’s oeuvre, which nevertheless forms a recognizable and coherent whole. The landscapes and seascapes are among his best work. They are inspired by the land and the sea, the air and the light – familiar elements that here acquire a deeper meaning. And the unsettled light is not only that of Ostend and the North Sea, but also that of James Ensor, whom Heckel greatly admired and with whom he became friends during his Ostend years. The works from Heckel’s Flemish period are built on observation and experience, representation and expression, memory and desire. They are romantic and expressive, spiritual and tangible, nostalgic and, in the context of the harsh times in which they were created, above all hopeful.
ISBN: 9789462303812
