Van Dongen's Artistic Journey and Parisian Life

Description

Van Dongen: Fauve, Anarchiste und mondänes Leben. Paris 2011, paperback, illustrated cover. Size in-4° (28 x 21.3 cm), 255 pages. Van Dongen’s work focuses on the depiction of women, characterized by electric light painted and distorted faces. He remains a Fauvism artist through his use of colors. His travels to Morocco, Spain, and Egypt in the early 1910s allowed him to reinvent a form of Orientalism, but Paris remains the main theme of his painting, capturing the popular energy and Bohemian life of Montmartre, where he met Picasso and Derain, as well as Montparnasse before and after World War I. In the Golden Twenties, which Van Dongen referred to as the 'Cocktail Era', he dedicated himself to the new Parisian elite: writers and literary figures, cinema and theater stars now forgotten. The poses are extravagant, and the costumes and theatrical accessories emphasize the artifice of his subjects. The exhibition features around 90 paintings, drawings, and a ceramic group from 1895 to the early 1930s, and is an extended version of the exhibition at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. The catalog summarizes the latest research on the artist and publicly presents his work. A very fine copy.