03/04/21 - 12/09/21
Female figures in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tournai. On the exceptional occasion of Rik Wouters's sculptures coming on loan from the Belfius Art Collection.
"If you want me to pose for you again like the other day", she continued with a sulky air, "I won't agree to it anymore, because at times like these, your eyes tell me nothing. You no longer think about me, and yet you look at me."
Better known for his paintings, Rik Wouters (1882 - 1916) was also a formidable sculptor who expressed life in all its facets. Taking his wife Nel Deurinckx, eternal muse and source of inspiration, as his model, the artist created two spectacular statues with ‘"La Vierge folle" (Mad Maiden) (also known as "La Folle Danseuse" (Mad Dancer)), 1912) and "Les Soucis domestiques" (Domestic Worries) (1914).
This is thanks to the support of the Belfius Art Collection, in the vast sculpture atrium of the Museum of Fine Arts of Tournai.
Today regarded as milestones of Belgian sculpture from the early 20th century, the two bronze works reveal two moments, two ambivalent moods of human nature. While the sculptor was inspired by the free dance of Isadora Duncan in creating "La Vierge folle", "Les Soucis domestiques" transposed Nel's face and body, making her arms folded in a more intimate and reserved attitude. Pursuing our desire to take a fresh look at the museum's collection, various pieces from a range of eras add to the great Antwerp artist's language.
Combining exteriority and interiority, including bacchants in meditative portraits, the presentation of these two sculptures provides an opportunity to take a critical look at the numerous
representations of women in the collections. Odes to the sensuality and plasticity of the body or images that are still reductive and stereotypical of "eternal femininity"? Nel, Marthe, Carmen, Suzanne, Marie-Madeleine, Vénus, Pénélope are anonymous models set up as muses, housewives, wives, workers, goddesses or saints, and are all female figures, real or imagined.
La folle danseuse ou les soucis domestiques
Cet album contient 8 éléments.
