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11/6/2010

Masquerade. Cobra Playfulness and the Mask

Cobra Museum, Amstelveen

Maskerade
Cobra playfulness and the Mask

From June 12th to October 10th, 2010 the Cobra Museum presents 'Maskerade: Cobra's Game with the Mask'. It promises to be an inspiring and multi-faceted summer exhibit about the relationship between Cobra and the mask: the mask as symbol for unrestrained and spontaneous art. A fun and challenging children's programme, 'The Cobra Expedition', has been developed to accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition will show works from Cobra alongside tribal masks and will include art by Ejler Bile, Eugène Brands, Corneille, Sonja Ferlov, Egill Jacobsen, Robert Jacobsen, Asger Jorn, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp, as well as work by the Cobra-associated artist Piet Ouborg. Special ethnographic items will also be exhibited: African masks from the Royal Danish Collection, from two authoritative museum collections and from the private collections of Brands, Corneille, Jan Nieuwenhuijs, Ouborg en Rooskens. This exhibition contains approximately 80 works, many of which are on loan from Danish and Dutch collectors.

With its combination of the works on view, fun children's activities and the exhibition's format, 'Maskerade' will be a very varied summer exhibition. The exhibition's theme is 'the mask'. It will feature Cobra artworks, primarily works dating from 1935 to the end of the 1950s, and will including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and-- very uniquely– two of Eugène Brands' experimental masks from the late 1940's. One such experimental mask originates from the Cobra Museum's own collection. Another has only recently come to light and has been loaned especially for this show. The diversity of 'Maskerade' is in part due to its ethnographic content, including works from the private collection of the Royal Danish Family; African masks from the Royal Museum for Middle Africa Tervuren (Belgium); and special objects from the collection of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

Cobra and the Mask
The exhibition focuses on the unique connection between Cobra and the mask. It will feature the origins and application of mask imagery within Modern Danish art in the 1930s and 1940s; the specific use of the mask as a symbol, motif and as a form of expression within the Dutch branch of Cobra including the Cobra-associated artist Piet Ouborg; and it highlights Cobra artist as collectors of ethnographic masks.

Danish artist Egill Jacobsen was the first, in the mid of the 1930s, to make a connection in his work with the mask. His screaming or laughing masks with their bright colours were a first emphatic response to the work of the much-admired masters, such as Klee, Miro and Ernst. During a trip to Paris in the winter of 1934 - 1935, Jacobsen became inspired by Picasso. Soon afterwards Jacobsen began making his barbaric masks; imaginative beings that sprang spontaneous to life. The mask painting led to the painting Obhobning (Accumulation); an abstract expressionist work that was a great source of inspiration for many of Jacobsen's peers within the Linien group. For Picasso and his contemporaries the mask was a way to deconstruct reality; the Tribal was confirmation of the Modern.

From the end of the 1930s, when Egill Jacobsen arrived at his spontaneous working method, his paintings began calling the old, barbarian world of Danish folklore back to life. He depicted the masks of carnival festivities and the dance around a colourfully-decorated Christmas tree-- an antiquated, but still-practised custom in Denmark, and one that is associated with a pagan ideas about living in harmony with, and mythological experiences of the natural environment. The mask served as a vehicle for all possible experiences and expressions, and as a symbol around which new mythologies could be created. Jacobsen's mask works made a significant impression on his fellow Danish (Linien) group members, including Asger Jorn, Ejler Bille, Sonja Ferlov, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Robert Jacobsen, each of whom went on to use and invest meaning in the mask in their own unique way.

Around 1948 Dutch experimental artists became acquainted with the Danish avant-garde. In it they found a confirmation of their own quest for a new, spontaneous kind of art. Anton Rooskens, Corneille, and Eugène Brands in particular focused their work on Africa and indigenous cultures. Anton Rooskens was a fore-runner, having already painted his ground-breaking painting Les Gens du Soleil in 1945. Karel Appel began making tribally-influenced work at the end of 1947 which was described as being "more powerful than African art or the work of Picasso." The use of the mask as symbol, motif and as a form of expression in the work of Dutch Cobra artists should be seen within the context of Cobra's characteristic style and fantastical figures.

The tribal, the prehistoric as well as folk art held less importance for the Belgian wing of the Cobra movement. However, the Danish and Dutch experimentalists saw the mask as a universal form of expression, as a vehicle for the unleashed imagination.

The play with the mask during 'Expedition Cobra’
From time immemorial, the mask has spoken to our imaginations. By its very nature then, 'Maskerade' presents children with a fun challenge. All kinds of engaging exercises can be completed in the exhibition space using a map, and also via a Hyves page. For duration of the 'Maskerade' exhibition, there will be walk-in activities on Saturdays and artist-led workshops on Sundays.

Persona
The mask holds deep meaning and is connected in many ways with human history and traditions. Our word 'person' is derived from the Latin 'persona' which means 'mask' and concerns the essence of an individual's personality. Masks have a role to play in many situations: at parties, in the theatre and as used in various cultures. Masks give protection; they are worn by superheroes. In Modern art, the mask has been taken up by Picasso and James Ensor.

An educational resource kit based on the exhibition is available for primary schools.

Maskerade: Cobra Playfulness and the Mask is supported by Dong Energy / Tennet / Energinet

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Guillaume Le Roy - Prints

From June 12th the Cobra Museum for Modern Art will show a selection of work from the large and extensive oeuvre of the important Dutch graphic artist Guillaume Le Roy (Blaricum 1938 - Amsterdam 2008). Most of the approximately 40 works on view are woodcuts, including works from the 'Xanthias' series which was dedicated to Le Roy's writer-doctor. The artworks on display are from the years 1980-2007, and all are on loan from the artist's own collection. This exhibition is significant in that it features a number of rarely-exhibited painted studies that Le Roy made in preparation for printed works.

Guillaume Le Roy was a graphic artist for almost fifty years, and for most of that time he limited himself to the etching and the woodcut: "I etch if I want to make things that I can't make in woodcut, and vice versa. I have to be able to scratch and corrode. I cut into wood and I corrode zinc. A graphic artist works differently than a painter. The painter (and the lithographic printmaker) add something: the paint. The etcher and the woodcut printmaker take something away. To me, 'taking away' is more interesting than adding." Le Roy was a master of these techniques to such an extent that he sublimated everything else to it: he brought the art of the woodcut back to its original visual manifestation. Guillaume Le Roy found his vehicle for expressing perceptions in weathered planks and in the grain of wood.

His woodcuts recall the scratch in a plank and man's innate need to inscribe signs of life. Le Roy rejected technical advancements made in printing over the years, and retained only black, white, and the broken line as essential elements. His mistrust of colour grew: "Good black/white is the most colourful that there is, that is the paradox." His working method was intuitive, direct and expressive. The etchings employ a frayed line, whereas his woodcuts feature more hard-edged linear work. Le Roy exploits all the possibilities that the material and techniques offer in order to maximize the power of their expression.

Going back to the basics was the guiding principle in Le Roy's development as a graphic artist. His figuration is characterised by its consistent and increasing isolation within compact forms. These forms arise from deep within the image and are brought together by Le Roy with loose and linear patterning.

In 1962, Gauillaume Le Roy completed his education in the graphic arts at the Amsterdam School for Applied Arts (currently the Rietveld Academy). He left for France where he came into contact with Bram van Velde and Giacometti. He was impressed by their work. In the work of Bram van Velde he recognised that it was not reality, but bringing about the experience of reality which was the subject of the work. Giacometti emphasised that the area around the object must be drawn. These two revelations guided Le Roy's future development.

Press contact:
Lieke Fijen, l.fijen@cobra-museum.nl, tel. +31-(0)20 5475038.

Cobra Museum of Modern Art
Sandbergplein 1 1181 ZX Amstelveen
Hours: Tues-Sun, 11:00am - 5:00pm, Closed Monday. Open other public holidays
Entrance Adult - 9,50 Cjp / students - 27 y - 5,00

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