Frans Verbeeck and the Mockery of Human Follies

“The Mockery of Human Follies” is one of those mysterious paintings that don’t allow me to stop thinking about them. In the first place because it is an excellent art work (in my humble opinion) and in the second place (maybe it should be the first place) because it is a satirical-moralistic-fantastic painting in the Medieval tradition. And I am addicted to medieval art.

My first impression of the painting is that it is a realistic-satirical work a’la Breugel. I see a scene of the life of peasants in a village, with a wonderful renaissance landscape in the background. But then I discover all the unusual things. The faces of the pictured people are odd, some of the ugly, some of them not, but almost everyone is smiling. And the smile isn’t an innocent, nice smile; it is definitely a rascally-devilish smile. There are lots of strange scenes, unexpected moments, shows and associations in this painting. I see lots of resemblance with Erasmus famous book “Lof der Zotheid” (In Praise of Folly, in English). Erasmus used words to describe the folly of humans; the painter of “The mockery of humans follies” used the language of the colours of his paints.

The Dorotheum in Vienna attributed the painting to Frans Verbeeck. He belonged together with Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Breugel and Adriaen Brouwer to the group of the XVI century Flemish painters who painted satirical-moralising work. The fantasy and satire go hand in hand in lots of pictures, drawings, carvings, decorations, sculptures, miniatures, illuminated manuscripts in the art work of the medieval time. The Flemish painters did not have to invent all the monstrous creatures by themselves. They could fall back on a rich and broad collection of peculiar species, exotic monsters and extremely weird people from the medieval artists. What they probably did was add some new symbols, pictures of farmers and poor people, and of course lots of hidden eroticism behind the realistic scenes.

Frans Verbeeck is mentioned in the book written by Carel van Mander about important Netherlands and German painters. The book was written probably in the XVI century. Carel van Mander died in 1606. The first edition is from 1764. Frans Verbeeck was born and worked in Mechelen in Belgium. He died in 1570, but we don’t know his date of birth. His paintings can be admired in the Centre for Old Art 't Vliegend Peert in Mechelen in Belgium.



The painting, “The Mockery of Human Follies” was for sale in 2007 at an auction by Dorotheum in Vienna. The guide price was between €65.000 and €75.000. It was sold of course. I would love to have the painting on my own wall, look at it every day, discover new stories, hidden metaphors, hidden symbols. I'm still trying to work out the significance of the tiny people present in such numbers. Are they us? And are the huge people the gods playing with us? laughing at us? or it is just us, the human species playing with other humans? Please let me know if you have any more information about this painting. My curiosity requires answers!

Witold Wojtkiewicz - phenomenal artist

Witold Wojtkiewicz - A Knight’s Tale – pastel of paper (from the cycle Ceremonies, 1908- 09)

Witold Wojtkiewicz is the most original polish painter from the XX century. Probably he is absolutely unknown to the world outside Poland the day today. But in 1907, his art aroused enough interest of André Gide and Maurice Denise to organise in the same year an individual exhibition at Galerie Druet in Paris. These are the words that Gidé wrote about the impression that Wojtkiewicz's art made on him at the exhibition in Berlin, the first time that he saw it: “[…] his exhibition led me to the conclusion that he was quite alienated in his country.[..] This was obvious. The exhibition brought together works which, although not devoid of value, gave us nothing new. […] when the astonishing significance of some of the canvases stopped us. They (the canvases of Wojtkiewicz) illuminated the slightly darkened room not with the brightness of the colours, as if the easy of profaner they may seem grey, but with the strange harmony of the tone, the painful fantasy of the drawing, and the pathetic and emotional interplay of colours”. Gidé's words faithfully described the situation of Wojtkiewicz in Poland's art climate of the time. The artist Wojtkiewicz was quite aware of the clearly different separateness of his art. It seems to me that he even emphasised it with his eccentricity and his unapproachableness (his impeccably foppish style of dressing). He didn’t live a long life; he was born in 1879 in Warsaw and died in 1909 in Warsaw. Some people called him the precursor of surrealism; it could be true. His art was a phenomenon completely distinct in its time. It is distinguished by its advanced deformation of reality, which aims at emphasising the sadness and sometimes the absurd fictitiousness of human existence. In his art, he combined grotesque with lyrics. His behaviour was always injected with a large dose of irony, as well as self-irony. His art, individual in every aspect, derived from his poetic imagination, was shaped, reached full maturity and was extinguished in less than seven years. For me, he is one of the exceptionally original artists, the one with the magical, unrepeatable poetic language of imagination. Maybe he was after all, more a writer and a poet than a painter? I posted here four images of his paintings from different cycles. They are more or less surreal and fantastic, with an atmosphere of strangeness and tension in the scenes. All of them represented the creative act of an extremely personalised vision of the world.

Witold Wojtkiewicz - Marionettes – oil on canvas (from the cycle The Circus,1907)

Witold Wojtkiewicz - Winter Tale, Tournament – tempera of canvas (from the cycle Children’s Poses, 1908)

Witold Wojtkiewicz - Abduction of the Princess – tempera of canvas (from the cycle Children’s Poses,1908)

The Fantastic Art of Beksinski

I hope you have heard the name Zdzislaw Beksinski. One of the most talented Fantasy Artists from the last decades of XX Century. (Born in 1941, died in 2005).

I am writing a post about him, but for the time being I thought you would like to see a video about his art. Under the video you will find a link to a amazing book about him (it is from Amazon.com). Watch this inspiring video. The artwork is 100% better in reality than on the screen.

Surrealist Artist - Jaroslaw Kukowski

His name is Jaroslaw Kukowski and you should know about him. Why? Because he is a great artist.
He was born on 11 April 1972 in Tczew, Poland. In his paintings he deals with moral and social issues in a controversial manner. Early in his artistic career, his works, which were regarded as symbolic, were filled with drama and sadness. Full of pain, deformed human figures along with mystic creatures were depicted against the background of surrealistic landscapes. He defined this series of works as Undreams. During another period, he lightened his palette when he became interested in nudes; nevertheless, even there, a viewer can perceive the brand of disintegration and passing time. In another stage of his artistic career, he moved back to his early works, but despite fairer colouring, his work became more and more ironic and provocative. In 2001, some of his works were removed from an exhibition in The Gallery SD following complaints from some members of the audience.

Jaroslaw Kukowski is one of 50 Artists featured in the first publication entitled Metamorphosis.The best publication about contemporary Surreal & Fantastic Artists. You should have IT.