International Symposium - Before and After? Continuity or Rupture? Belgian Art around World War I

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are organising an international scientific symposium dedicated to the place of Belgian Art in a European context. In European art historiography, World War I is traditionally described as a turnpoint boosting the avant-garde. The symposium intends to confront this now conventional assertion with the specific cultural situation of Belgian Art in the beginning of the 20th century. The artistic evolution of Belgian Art during World War I, as well as the circulation of art works, the situation of museums, galleries, artistic or cultural associations and cultural transfers are treated under this aspect. A simple BEFORE / AFTER dichotomy enables to structure the field of study systematically and to address the question of the DURING. The issues discussed at the symposium are being developed in the exhibition "14-18. Rupture or Continuity?".


Programme

Thursday, November 24th

10:30 Introduction, welcome

10:45 • Keynote speaker: Sophie de Schaepdrijver (Pennsylvania State University):
De verbijstering voorbij: Belgiës kunstenaars en het vorm geven aan de Groote Oorlog

11:15 Coffee break

11:45 • PANEL 1: ARTISTS AT WAR

1) Pierre Dejemeppe (Brussels):
Ils ne peignent pas ce qu’ils voient. Les peintres face aux horreurs de la guerre 14-18

2) Sandrine Smets (Royal museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, Brussels):
L’art en guerre ! L’état belge mécène des artistes combattants : politique bienveillante ou nécessité impérieuse ?

12:45 Lunch break

14:00 • PANEL 2: INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE AND OCCUPATION

3) Inga Rossi-Schrimpf (Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels):
Precursors and/ or Followers? Belgian Artists and their Germanic Eastern Neighbours. From Proto-Expressionism to Abstract Art

4) Christina Kott & Hubert Roland (Université Panthéon-Assas Paris 2 & F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain):
« Rencontres interculturelles » et occupation: Un nouvel élan pour les transferts artistiques belgo-allemands après 1918

5) Ulrich Tiedau (University College London):
“Der Belfried” (July 1916 – December 1918): Portrait of a culturalscholarly occupation journal

15:30 Coffee break

16:00 • PANEL3: INFLUENCE OF WW I ON ART MARKET AND EXHIBITION STRATEGIES

6) Werner Adriaenssens (Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels):
Salons en tentoonstellingen in Brussel tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog

7) Michèle Van Kalck (Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels):
Hippolyte Fierens-Gevaert, organisateur d’expositions avant, pendant et après la Première Guerre mondiale

8) Laura Kollwelter (Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Brussels):
Jacob De Graaff, Patron of the Belgian Artists in Exile


Friday, November 25th

10:00 Free visit of the exhibition ’14-18. Rupture or Continuity?’ (in presence of the curator)

10:45 • PANEL 4: POLITICIZED ART AROUND WW I

9) Sergio Servellón (FeliXart Museum, Drogenbos):
Van toen Vlaams-nationaal, progressief engagement en avant-garde samenklitten

10) Erik Buelinckx (Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels):
Brusselaar Albert Daenens (1882 – 1952): Belgisch kunstenaar, Vlaams activist en Franstalig publicist, internationale Anarchist en antimilitarist, voor, tijdens en na WO I

12:00 Lunch break

13:00 • PANEL 5a: BELGIAN ART AND THE INTERNATIONAL AVANT-GARDES OF THE 1920’S – NETWORKS

11) Hans Vandevoorde (VUB, Brussels):
Generatie 1910 en 1920 : verloren of verenigd in de gemeenschapskunst

12) Eva Francioli (University of Florence):
The Originality of the ‘7 Arts’ Constructivism: the Connections to the Belgian Pre-War Art Scene

13) Françoise Lucbert (Université Laval, Québec):
Réseaux d’artistes avant et après la guerre: le cas exemplaire de la Section d’or

14:30 Lunch break

15:30 • PANEL 5b: BELGIAN ART AND THE INTERNATIONAL AVANT-GARDES OF THE 1920’S - CASE STUDIES

14) Ole W. Fischer (University of Utah, Salt Lake City):
From Avant-garde to Arrière-garde? – Henry van de Velde’s Architectural OEuvre Before and After WWI

15) Peter Pauwels (Antwerp):
Tour Donas, een Belgische kunstenares in de international avantgarde

16) Caterina Verdickt (University of Antwerp):
Belgian Artists in Great-Britain

16:30 Conclusion


Free but registration is required before 15.11.2016
via symposiumfine-arts-museum.be
Please mention name, address and day(s) of participation