Welcome to London Grip, a forum for reviews of books, shows & events – plus quarterly postings of new poetry. Our most recent posts are listed below. Older posts can be explored via the search box and topic list. For more information & guidelines on submitting reviews or poems please visit our Home page.
Until August 17 at KMSKA – Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
Accompanying book published by Hannibal Books.
Detachment from time and space are the hallmarks of Hans Op de Beeck’s meticulously crafted art, which arguably make it fitting that he has never had a complete exhibition of his work in his native Belgium – until now.
Now, he is being placed in the context of the dream-like surrealism and unsettling momento mori that characterise the work of his fellow Belgian artists, such as James Ensor, Leon Spilliaert and René Magritte, with an exhibition at Antwerp’s KMSKA and an accompanying book, published by Hannibal Books.
Magritte, in summing up his own goals, also takes us to the heart of Op de Beeck.
“I take care, as far as possible, to make only paintings that arouse mystery with the precision and enchantment necessary for the life of ideas,” Magritte wrote.
Whereas Magritte’s preferred medium was painting, illuminated by otherworldly light, Op De Beeck gives us almost entirely monochrome, matt, life-size statues and models.
In the unforgiving absence of colour, mesmerising details draw us in as Op De Beeck’s characters are suspended mid-journey.
“The Horseman” could be leaving or arriving. He has a monkey on his shoulder that is carrying a parasol, which sets off the high seriousness of the cavalier’s chiselled features. Strapped to the saddle bags are a trumpet and what we assume are the other props of a fairground act.
“The Boatman” is also frozen, literally mid-stream. Every muscle is taut as he punts his boat that carries what seem to be all his possessions plus a dog past lilies and bullrushes.
If he has a home, it would be at “The Settlement”, a floating, Asian-looking village, lit by yellow lights in one of the rare dabs of colour Op De Beeck allows himself.
The Horseman meanwhile could have pitched a tent by Op De Beeck’s sinister carousel that is another part of the nocturnal landscape we are journeying through.
As grey as everything else, rather than bedecked in the garish colours of the standard fairground, the carousel is decorated with skulls, while skeletons wearing clothes ride its horses and sit in its carriages, reminiscent of Ensor’s work.
Taking up the amusement park theme, “Soap Bubbles” depicts a young girl blowing bubbles. It’s a moment of suspension, of the glass bubble, and in its depiction of an activity that has occupied children down the ages.
The human love of dressing up is equally enduring. “Mother’s Shoes” features the same girl, or maybe another, in any case, an archetype with perfectly plaited hair, peacocking in outsized shoes and an exquisite tutu.
The message of all this is hard to define, but at the very least Op de Beeck uses art to pause time, while reminding us that we cannot do the same. The impact is to console and to concern.
The girl will all too quickly grow into the shoes that will no longer swamp her and become like the care-worn adults of Op De Beeck’s “Mum and Dad” – two figures in their dressing gowns, as if woken by a crisis in the night.
While they are vigilant, Op De Beeck gives us a sleeping child who constitutes another momento mori rather than an image of peace. On the bedside table, a packet of tablets and a butterfly are reminders of frailty and transience.
Even young love, when potentially we are most alive, is placed on the edge of a precipice in “The Cliff”, in which two young lovers, anxious and apprehensive, perhaps on the brink of separation, hold hands.
I’ve only digested the book, which expertly conveys an exhibition I’m now keen to see in a city that is always worth a visit.
Hans Op de Beeck: Nocturnal Journey
Until August 17 at KMSKA – Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
Accompanying book published by Hannibal Books.
Detachment from time and space are the hallmarks of Hans Op de Beeck’s meticulously crafted art, which arguably make it fitting that he has never had a complete exhibition of his work in his native Belgium – until now.
Now, he is being placed in the context of the dream-like surrealism and unsettling momento mori that characterise the work of his fellow Belgian artists, such as James Ensor, Leon Spilliaert and René Magritte, with an exhibition at Antwerp’s KMSKA and an accompanying book, published by Hannibal Books.
Magritte, in summing up his own goals, also takes us to the heart of Op de Beeck.
“I take care, as far as possible, to make only paintings that arouse mystery with the precision and enchantment necessary for the life of ideas,” Magritte wrote.
Whereas Magritte’s preferred medium was painting, illuminated by otherworldly light, Op De Beeck gives us almost entirely monochrome, matt, life-size statues and models.
In the unforgiving absence of colour, mesmerising details draw us in as Op De Beeck’s characters are suspended mid-journey.
“The Horseman” could be leaving or arriving. He has a monkey on his shoulder that is carrying a parasol, which sets off the high seriousness of the cavalier’s chiselled features. Strapped to the saddle bags are a trumpet and what we assume are the other props of a fairground act.
“The Boatman” is also frozen, literally mid-stream. Every muscle is taut as he punts his boat that carries what seem to be all his possessions plus a dog past lilies and bullrushes.
If he has a home, it would be at “The Settlement”, a floating, Asian-looking village, lit by yellow lights in one of the rare dabs of colour Op De Beeck allows himself.
The Horseman meanwhile could have pitched a tent by Op De Beeck’s sinister carousel that is another part of the nocturnal landscape we are journeying through.
As grey as everything else, rather than bedecked in the garish colours of the standard fairground, the carousel is decorated with skulls, while skeletons wearing clothes ride its horses and sit in its carriages, reminiscent of Ensor’s work.
Taking up the amusement park theme, “Soap Bubbles” depicts a young girl blowing bubbles. It’s a moment of suspension, of the glass bubble, and in its depiction of an activity that has occupied children down the ages.
The human love of dressing up is equally enduring. “Mother’s Shoes” features the same girl, or maybe another, in any case, an archetype with perfectly plaited hair, peacocking in outsized shoes and an exquisite tutu.
The message of all this is hard to define, but at the very least Op de Beeck uses art to pause time, while reminding us that we cannot do the same. The impact is to console and to concern.
The girl will all too quickly grow into the shoes that will no longer swamp her and become like the care-worn adults of Op De Beeck’s “Mum and Dad” – two figures in their dressing gowns, as if woken by a crisis in the night.
While they are vigilant, Op De Beeck gives us a sleeping child who constitutes another momento mori rather than an image of peace. On the bedside table, a packet of tablets and a butterfly are reminders of frailty and transience.
Even young love, when potentially we are most alive, is placed on the edge of a precipice in “The Cliff”, in which two young lovers, anxious and apprehensive, perhaps on the brink of separation, hold hands.
I’ve only digested the book, which expertly conveys an exhibition I’m now keen to see in a city that is always worth a visit.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • art, exhibitions, sculpture, year 2025 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, exhibitions, sculpture