INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ON THE RECEPTION OF
POP ART IN BELGIUM
(1960-1970)
1-2 DECEMBER 2011
ROYAL MUSEUMS OF
FINE ARTS OF BELGIUM
ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM
POP?
International Symposium
on the Reception of Pop
Art
in Belgium (1960 - 1970)
On 1 and 2 December 2011, Carl Jacobs, researcher at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, organises the international
symposium "Pop? On the reception of Pop Art in Belgium (1960-1970)". At this symposium,
internationally renowned lecturers and young researchers will focus on the reception of Pop
Art
in Belgium and Europe. How was America related to Europe? When did the European art scene
shifted its interest in new aesthetic developments from Paris to New York? In which way did
young artists responded to new Trans-Atlantic stimuli? Thanks to contributions from England,
France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, completed with a call for papers addressed to
young researchers, this symposium is bound to provide stimulating answers to these questions.
At this symposium, research on the local developments in European art from the 1960s aspires
to
redirect the interpretation of the driving forces and the development of the Belgian and
European art world.
Pop Art: a global art
Pop art is one of world's most
imaginative cultural and artistic movements from the post-war era. Grown out of the
Anglo-Saxon
world, it originated at almost the same time in both the United Kingdom and the United States
of America. In the USA, icons like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg started
to
depict the contemporary consumer society in a brutal, figurative and industrial way. British
artists like Peter Blake, Allen Jones and Peter Phillips were, next to figurative depiction,
also very much interested in progression, technology and sex. However, they introduced those
subjects in the more traditional fine art painting.
In the mean time in Paris, some
artists motivated the development of a new realism as well. Under the influence of French
critic Pierre Restany, some artists signed a manifest to join forces as les nouveaux
réalistes. They too started to process daily life in their art. Because in Belgium and
to lesser extend in the Netherlands and Germany, artists focussed on Paris since many decades,
it was this influence of Nouveau Réalisme which became visible in the work of European
artists. But soon, the influence of Anglo-Saxon Pop became predominant. By the end of 1964,
exhibitions containing a significant body of works by Anglo-American Pop artists had been
shown
in major institutions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Before long, artists
like Gerhard Richter and Wolf Vostell in Germany and Gustaaf Asselberghs and Woody Van Amen in
the Netherlands started to incorporate the visual language of Pop art in their own works. In
Belgium too, the influence of Anglo-American Pop art became clear. Some works of artists like
Marcel Broodthaers, Panamarenko, Evelyne Axell, Balder and Cel Overberghe show, sometimes in a
very subtle manner, a connection towards American Pop Art, while the works from Roger Raveel
(1960s) and Etienne Elias seem to be more assessable to English influences.
Lecturers
Keynote speakers will be Allen Jones (English Pop artist); Marco
Livingstone (independent curator and writer of many books on Pop art and its leading artists);
Dr. Rogier Schumacher (Art History Department of the University of Utrecht and writer of
Neo-Avant-Garde in Nederland); Prof. Dr. Hans de Wolf (Professor Vrije Universiteit Brussel
and
Duchamp specialist); Prof. Dr. Alexander Streitberger (Professor Université
Catholique de Louvain and director of the Lieven Gevaert Center); and Drs. Carl Jacobs (Scientific researcher at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, on the topic of 'Pop Art in Belgium'). The theme of the symposium
will be introduced by Dr. Frederik Leen (Head of the department of Modern Art at the Royal
Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and promoter of the research project on Pop Art in Belgium). A
call for papers was sent out some of which will be presented at the symposium. This selection
will be made public on November 1 via this website.
Scientific Committee:
Julie Bawin, Université de Liège | Hans de Wolf, Vrije Universiteit Brussel |
Frederik Leen, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium | Alexander Streitberger,
Université catholique de Louvain |