But internationally, there’s still a long way to go, even though his work was present, albeit minimally, at the big fauvist overview a dozen years ago in Paris.
And it won’t be the new exhibition in his birthplace, Mechelen, that will convince the disbelievers. True, Rik Wouters & Co: Beeldhouwers in Mechelen (Sculptors in Mechelen) at the congress centre Lamot isn’t an exhibition exclusively devoted to Wouters. But he is the main focus, at least with works he made until 1912, the year he definitively chose painting over sculpting.
Wouters started, as a 12 year old boy, in the workplace of his father Emile, a wellrespected joiner. The exhibition opens with some woodcarvings of Wouters Sr. There are also woodworks by Boudewijn Tuerlinckx, Karel Bonaugure en Nante Wijnants, friends of the young Rik, who also had a try with wood (though he wasn’t very fond of it).
In fact, the most remarkable works of the young Wouters at this exhibition are not his early explorations in sculpting – besides wood, he also worked with plaster and later bronze – but a selfportrait from 1902 and another beautiful charcoal drawing from 1901: “Portret van Theo Blickx” (“Portrait of Theo Blickx”). The latter forms an intriguing duo with an undated charcoal by Blickx: “Portret van Rik Wouters”.
The exhibition prides itself in re-establishing the Mechelen roots of the artist and includes Wouters’ views of the Mechelen skyline, not his most famous works. Still, his three portraits of the city’s most famous landmark, the Sint-Rombouts Cathedral, are mostly interesting for academics and art historians.
At the end of the exhibition, Wouters’ illuminating 1912 trip to Paris is mentioned. He went to the city, at that time the thriving art capital of the world, to discover the works of Paul Cézanne. The influence of the French pioneer of modernist painting is blatantly clear in four portraits Wouters painted of his soul mate, Ernest Wijnants, during the summer of the same year.
And then we are sent home with the dry reflection that “after the sculptor, also the painter Rik Wouters definitely found his way. But that’s another story.”
Of course, the evolution of Wouters as a painter is not the scope of this exhibition. But it still feels like an aborted affair, especially since most of what’s on display of Wouters’ friends and contemporaries might have a didactic quality, but artistically makes you yearn for more, much more, by the master himself.
Still, there is some beautiful art to admire at Lamot. Besides the charcoals, highlights are three centrally exposed sculptures. “Dromerij” (“Reverie”), “Houding” (“Posture”) and the amazing “Huiselijke zorgen” (“Domestic Worries”). They show Wouters the sculptor at his best, combining strength with delicacy.
Another highlight is the “Zittend naakt” (“Sitting Nude”) by Nante Wijnants: a portrait in melancholic brownish tones, punctuated by the flashy red of the chair.
What’s shown at Rik Wouters & Co would have been an interesting start of a larger retrospective on Wouters, but, as it is, it’s more appropriate for Wouters completists than for art lovers who still need to discover him. The latter better wait for the next exhibition Rik Wouters & Co: Hoogtepunten (see sidebar).
I don’t know who’s responsible for the layout of the exhibition – the respected curator Kurt De Boodt or the often highly praised designers and architects B-Architecten – but the lighting effects don,t help matters. Some parts of the exhibition are bathed in a kind of halflight, then suddenly become brightly lit, before the light fades again.
Last and really least, Rik Wouters & Co occupies a room within another room – created from the ugliest plywood possible. Surely, father and son Wouters would turn in their graves if they knew the setting in which their works are presented.
Until 18 September
Lamot, Van Beethovenstraat 8
Mechelen
www.rikwouters.be
On 24 September, the exhibition Rik Wouters & Co: Hoogtepunten
(Rik Wouters & Co: Highlights) opens in Mechelen’s Schepenhuis.
This is not, as the title suggests, a best-of the artist but the collection
of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA). During the
KMSKA’s closure for renovations, some of its masterpieces are on
show in other venues.
The KMSKA’s works of Rik Wouters – probably the strongest
collection of his art – travels to his birthplace. Nineteen sculptures,
26 paintings and 55 works on paper will be on display, and some of
them belong to his best work like “Vrouw aan het venster” (“Woman
at the Window”) and “Zelfportret met sigaar” (“Self-portrait with
Cigar”). Don’t miss it, but you also don’t have to hurry: The collection
will stay in Mechelen until the reopening of the KMSKA, in 2017.
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