Van Dongen: Fauve, Anarchist and Socialite
This is a comprehensive look at a multifaceted personality: the socially-conscious Dutchman ever ready to caricature and denounce, the avant-garde artist and iconic Fauve, and one of the Roaring Twenties’ leading figures on the trendy Paris scene. This exhibition centres on the success that came with his Paris period.
Fauve, Anarchist and Socialite
The exhibition title “Van Dongen: Fauve, Anarchist and Socialite” suggests not so much as a succession of periods as an overlay of artistic poses: the Dutch rebel mixing in anarchist circles around 1895 and the avant-garde artist playing a very personal role in the Fauvist mouvement. The “urbane” Fauve Kees Van Dongen focussed on the female body, and in particular on the face made-up to the point of deformation which became, in a way, his trademark. Coulour made Van Dongen the guiding spirit of Fauvism, the colour he revivified with his trips to Morocco, Spain and Egypt. Yet Paris remained his dominant subject. Later, in the roaring twenties’, he would devote himself exclusively to the new elite. The poses are wildly overdone, with melodramatic costumes. Van Dongen’s success and involvement with the avant-garde made him a special kind of artist, whose verve and freedom still fascinate.
The exhibition comprises some 90 paintings and drawings together with ceramics, dating from 1895 to early 1930s and can been seen at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris from March 25th – July 17th 2011
