Contemporary Expression

On April 26, 1937, the Nazi Condor Legion destroyed the little city of Guernica in Spain; learning of this, Picasso immediately started work on a very large painting which he finished on June 3. Guernica can probably be considered the greatest work of our century - and 'contemporary expression', can be defined as the link which every work of art has with a precise time in history. Different artists react differently to the events of their time, and their reactions might be categorized as negative or positive. For example, Vlaminck, whose paintings were full of color during the period of Fauvism, covered his post-war skies with grey clouds. After the First World War, German painters carried an oppressive social weight on their shoulders: Otto Dix portrayed the misery of the soldier in the trenches and the pain of a mutilated person with open wounds, Georg Grosz the loss of hope, inflation, famine. This and other revelations of the guilt of German society in 1933 resulted in painting being censored by the dictatorship. Sometimes, as in the case of Max Beckmann, the painter sought exile. On the other hand, the Muralist Mexican painters Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros participated positively in the revolution, helping Mexico to discover herself. Their paintings became banners for the peasants who were fighting, messages painted on the walls of public buildings.

After the Second World War, the weight of the world lay even more heavily upon artists. The CoBrA group tried desperately to renew the celebration of life, through humor, by looking into the truth of children, and by the use of brilliant color. The most important painter of this group is the Dane, Asger Jorn; others are Dotremont, Appel, Corneille, Constant and Alechinsky. But form in contemporary expression as we know it today presents two aspects. One is demonstrated in the work of Edward Kienholz, who wanted to recreate the life of society and make us aware of an everyday reality which we have forgotten about or taken for granted; the other is revealed in the work of Francis Bacon, who also wished to be a witness of his times, but only through the dimension of himself. There are no messages in his paintings; Bacon is simply trying to communicate with the people who wish to communicate with him. This art, which might seem to be pessimistic, is merely a way of asserting that life is the first priority - which is why mouths painted by Bacon look as if they are about to bite rather than to scream. Also features the work of Permeke, De Smet, Soutine, Chagall, Dubuffet and others.

© 1998-2008 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.