Art Of The Day Weekly

Delvaux, the Belgian surrealist

ÉVIAN - Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) lived to be (almost) 100 years old. But most importantly he was one of the leading artists in Belgian surrealism, which is not limited to Magritte but on the contrary grouped together a number of remarkable personalities, such as Scutenaire or Nougé. His life was drab: he was born near Liège, and died in Furnes, at the opposite end of Belgium without ever having taken a major trip between the two. But his interior world was strangely exotic. Castles and classic Italian style parks were peopled by nude women, skeletons, columns and statues with broken arms. One will see influences by Chirico, Ernst, and Tanguy of course. But there is a touch of his own, a taste for stations and trains, windows, long perspectives. The exhibition is based on the rich, private collection of the Ghêne spouses, and it allows us to follow the artist’s complete itinerary. A major work, l’Incendie (1935), which Delvaux had cut in two, is presented here, whole: the two halves have been brought together and should remain so, as the collectors have each promised to donate their half to the Musées royaux des beaux-arts, which have the counterpart.
• Paul Delvaux, le maître du rêve at the Palais Lumière, from 1 July to 1 October 2017. Catalogue Somogy, 216 p., €35.

Know more