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拍品專文
Fascinated by the omnipresence and natural elements of the North Sea, Léon Spilliaert, reenergised himself both day and night during long solitary walks along the dike and on deserted beaches. Lulled by the sea spray stirred by westerly winds, he let his deep thoughts wander on the waves of his imagination, informed by his contemporary environment. Initially aligned with the Symbolist movement, he took inspiration from his readings of contemporary authors and philosophers such as Maurice Maeterlinck, Emile Verhaeren and Friedrich Nietzsche. However, he very quickly distanced himself from this influence to only pursue one deeply individualistic goal: ‘To always be better... always the same, always changing.’ His artistic activity was now expressed by an unwavering faith in the specificity of his work and by the certainty of the importance of constant renewal. Spilliaert was the director of his own life and art. This attitude renders a rigorous classification of his works particularly difficult to conduct.
The impulse that led Spilliaert during the early years of his career to deepen the representation of ‘being in the world’ would henceforth also be expressed in a series of works in which human presence is almost non-existent. He transposes his life and experiences from his nocturnal walks into extremely simplified visionary compositions. Here he joins the painter Piet Mondrian who much later, in 1919, proposed the term ‘realistic abstraction.’ ‘The abstract-realist artist, who lives in a sensory world, collects moments of disinterested contemplation, moments that he synthesizes to make a permanent vision, which he then fixes on a support.’ Seeing clearly is also an important adage, that is to say, seeing only the relationships between things and the world as a whole. Spilliaert himself always emphasized these universal links with the world: ‘I see a scene, I draw an interpretation, an impression from it. Therefore cerebral, realistic work.’ Step by step through his compositions, giving life to the disproportionate spaces of dike, breakwater, beach and sea, Spilliaert also reaches a degree of simplified abstraction.
Spilliaert’s fascination with the arrangement of space and the expression of infinity inspired his first experiments with straight lines in 1907, whether horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Starting from the high horizon line characteristic of his seascapes, he initially placed a vanishing point in the centre of the page, as in Le signal sur le promontoire (Signal Pole on the Pier), 1907. From there he divided the space into two equal parts, that of the sky and the earth. This search for a simplification of the composition, a balanced division of the pictorial surface, reveals a desire for detachment from reality that would allow him to translate a metaphysical experience. In Le signal sur le promontoire, he achieved a thorough purification by relying, in the representation of the pier’s structure, on a rhythmic network of horizontal and diagonal lines.
To fully highlight the pure forms, Spilliaert opted, in his wide views of booms, dikes and beaches from 1907, almost exclusively for the sober wash of Indian ink, which he allowed himself to enhance with discreet touches of coloured pencils, opting only for green, red or blue. To construct his composition, Spilliaert worked the good quality paper with various layers of ink, which he initially applied in transparent veils. By superimposing layers of nuanced tones, he created a gradient that evolved from light grey to dark grey, to cloudy black, finally obtaining a saturated and velvety black. In several places the dense ink shines on the surface and reaches a depth where the light is lost.
Images and visions of beaches, as in Digue et plage from 1907, also often arise from the sober contours of a basic form. The volumes sketched here of the dike in the foreground, the beach in the background and the sky heavy with the threat of approaching storms are mainly indicated on the sheet by contrasts emphasized through chiaroscuro. The diffuse light defines our reading of this subtly evoked scene. It is as if Spilliaert wanted to give his vision the appearance of a photo negative. What should retain the light, for example the nearby dike, is in fact a dark mass. The beach with its light sand is dull and cold. Also strange is the little light that emanates from the watery surface, to which the last rays of daylight cling.
Everything plays out here as if in rhythm and musical scansion. The diagonal of the dike echoes in an abrupt zig zag line along the dark horizon borderline, cutting off the idea of an infinite sea. The momentary luminous opening is reflected in the water and faintly illuminates the strip of beach where two characters are sketched. All the dramatic tension of the composition lies in what could be read as a confrontation between two beings, minimized in their thoughts and appearances. The timidly suggested encounter between the man and the woman could be the symbol of a beginning, could hold a promise of the dawn of life. A glimmer of hope in an environment that corresponds to a universal experience of mankind in the world.
Unlike his contemporaries, Spilliaert wanted to express himself through an intrinsically original and personal vision, which had until then only encountered rejection and contempt. It was in this same year, 1907, that he decided to withdraw into himself, to lock himself away in a closed universe, to abandon the confrontation with the wide and wild nature. This was the year in which he began the series of the most striking self-portraits, revealing harsh truths and a personal engagement that Belgian art had never before produced.
Essay by Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier
The impulse that led Spilliaert during the early years of his career to deepen the representation of ‘being in the world’ would henceforth also be expressed in a series of works in which human presence is almost non-existent. He transposes his life and experiences from his nocturnal walks into extremely simplified visionary compositions. Here he joins the painter Piet Mondrian who much later, in 1919, proposed the term ‘realistic abstraction.’ ‘The abstract-realist artist, who lives in a sensory world, collects moments of disinterested contemplation, moments that he synthesizes to make a permanent vision, which he then fixes on a support.’ Seeing clearly is also an important adage, that is to say, seeing only the relationships between things and the world as a whole. Spilliaert himself always emphasized these universal links with the world: ‘I see a scene, I draw an interpretation, an impression from it. Therefore cerebral, realistic work.’ Step by step through his compositions, giving life to the disproportionate spaces of dike, breakwater, beach and sea, Spilliaert also reaches a degree of simplified abstraction.
Spilliaert’s fascination with the arrangement of space and the expression of infinity inspired his first experiments with straight lines in 1907, whether horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Starting from the high horizon line characteristic of his seascapes, he initially placed a vanishing point in the centre of the page, as in Le signal sur le promontoire (Signal Pole on the Pier), 1907. From there he divided the space into two equal parts, that of the sky and the earth. This search for a simplification of the composition, a balanced division of the pictorial surface, reveals a desire for detachment from reality that would allow him to translate a metaphysical experience. In Le signal sur le promontoire, he achieved a thorough purification by relying, in the representation of the pier’s structure, on a rhythmic network of horizontal and diagonal lines.
To fully highlight the pure forms, Spilliaert opted, in his wide views of booms, dikes and beaches from 1907, almost exclusively for the sober wash of Indian ink, which he allowed himself to enhance with discreet touches of coloured pencils, opting only for green, red or blue. To construct his composition, Spilliaert worked the good quality paper with various layers of ink, which he initially applied in transparent veils. By superimposing layers of nuanced tones, he created a gradient that evolved from light grey to dark grey, to cloudy black, finally obtaining a saturated and velvety black. In several places the dense ink shines on the surface and reaches a depth where the light is lost.
Images and visions of beaches, as in Digue et plage from 1907, also often arise from the sober contours of a basic form. The volumes sketched here of the dike in the foreground, the beach in the background and the sky heavy with the threat of approaching storms are mainly indicated on the sheet by contrasts emphasized through chiaroscuro. The diffuse light defines our reading of this subtly evoked scene. It is as if Spilliaert wanted to give his vision the appearance of a photo negative. What should retain the light, for example the nearby dike, is in fact a dark mass. The beach with its light sand is dull and cold. Also strange is the little light that emanates from the watery surface, to which the last rays of daylight cling.
Everything plays out here as if in rhythm and musical scansion. The diagonal of the dike echoes in an abrupt zig zag line along the dark horizon borderline, cutting off the idea of an infinite sea. The momentary luminous opening is reflected in the water and faintly illuminates the strip of beach where two characters are sketched. All the dramatic tension of the composition lies in what could be read as a confrontation between two beings, minimized in their thoughts and appearances. The timidly suggested encounter between the man and the woman could be the symbol of a beginning, could hold a promise of the dawn of life. A glimmer of hope in an environment that corresponds to a universal experience of mankind in the world.
Unlike his contemporaries, Spilliaert wanted to express himself through an intrinsically original and personal vision, which had until then only encountered rejection and contempt. It was in this same year, 1907, that he decided to withdraw into himself, to lock himself away in a closed universe, to abandon the confrontation with the wide and wild nature. This was the year in which he began the series of the most striking self-portraits, revealing harsh truths and a personal engagement that Belgian art had never before produced.
Essay by Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier