Floris Jespers

FLORIS JESPERS (March 18, 1889 - April 16, 1965)
"Afrikaans Tafereel."
Oil on canvas.
Exhibited at: Guillaume Campo, Antwerp, 1985. PMMK, Ostend, 2004-2005.
Measurements: 150,5 x 200 cm; 156 x 206 cm (frame).

This painting by Floris Jespers, made in the 1950s, belongs to his artistic maturity, when the author has already overcome his cubist phase to reach a fully personal language, although still permeated by the influences of the historical avant-garde. The work represents a group of African women carrying baskets on their heads, within a compact and rhythmic composition (a rhythm given by the reeds and other jungle elements) reminiscent of sculptural friezes or traditional tapestries. Jespers' line, of evident expressionist and synthetic roots, does not limit itself to describing forms, but carves them visually on the pictorial surface. The black line, thick and continuous, fulfills a structural function: it cuts out the silhouettes, delimits them with controlled violence, almost as if they were incisions on a wooden plate, endowing the bodies with a sculptural presence that refers to primitive African statuary (a constant source of inspiration for Jespers), as well as to the art of engraving. The palette is dominated by ochre, earthy and warm tones. Far from representing an anecdotal instant, the work becomes an allegory of life in communion with nature. This is evidenced by the animals integrated in the set (a snake and a fawn), which are part of the same visual warp.

Floris Jespers was a Belgian avant-garde painter. After graduating from the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, he connected with the poet Paul Van Ostaijen and joined the Antwerp avant-garde movement of the 1920s. He contributed to the publications Ça Ira, Le Centaure and Sélection and became friends with Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes when they published Du Cubisme. In 1921 he had an exhibition abroad for the first time (the exhibition of the Dutch art group De Branding with Kurt Schwitters and Fokko Mees). In 1925 he became a member of Contemporary Art (Kunst van Heden). He traveled to the Belgian Congo for the first time in 1951. He stayed in the town of Kamina where his son Mark worked as a doctor. The trip was a revelation for him. He translated his impressions of African women into colorful frescoes. Jespers' African paintings are not genre scenes but present a broader view of Africa. From the mysterious gazes and faces of the Swimmers painted in Ostend in 1927 and the Congolese women of the 1950s emerges the same idealized vision of the untouchable and enigmatic African woman. He also used the verre églomisé technique.