Uitgelicht
Peter J.H. Pauwels
JOZEF PEETERS EN DE STRIJD TEGEN DEN TINGELTANGEL (Inter)national network of an Antwerp avant-garde in the 1920s
Antwerpen, Ludion/ Gallery Van De Velde, 2022.. 2 Volumes in slipcase, Hardcovers,, 325 x 245 mm, 496 pages; TEXT ONLY IN DUTCH. edition. met prachtige illustraties. FINE!
This richly illustrated reference work on the life and struggles of the abstract artist Jozef Peeters (1895-1960) offers a fascinating insight into the Belgian and European avant-garde of the mad 1920s, with Antwerp as its base. There, shortly after the end of the First World War, Peeters established himself as the concertmaster of the most progressive art happenings. He founded the Circle of Modern Art and organized three major congresses of modern art, with shocking exhibitions. Together with Michel Seuphor, he led the leading magazine Hetoverzicht between 1922 and 1925; later the art newspaper De Driehoek followed. These cult magazines - with articles by renowned authors and reproductions of the highest quality - made Antwerp at that time a respected link in the European framework of the urban avant-garde. The extensive research of author Peter J.H. Pauwels sheds light on Peeters' pioneering role, as a searching artist and as a promoter of international constructivism through his contacts with many passionate fellow fighters at home and abroad. Not only do Belgian figures such as Victor Servranckx, Felix De Boeck, Paul van Ostaijen and Marthe Donas pass in review, but also Piet Mondriaan, Theo and Nelly van Doesburg, Herwarth and Nell Walden, Robert and Sonja Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Lajos Kassak, László Moholy-Nagy, J.J.P. Oud, Marcel Iancu and F.T. Marinetti. Together they believed - for a short time and through trial and error - in a universally recognizable geometric abstract art, which after the debacle of the war would transcend national borders to result in a new, better world. TEXT ONLY IN DUTCH
EUR 75.00