Floris Jespers (18 March 1889 in

Borgerhout Borgerhout () is the smallest districts of Antwerp, district of Antwerp, Belgium. , the district housed 45,769 inhabitants on 3.93 km². It was an independent municipality until January 1983. The postal area code for Borgerhout is 2140. Geography ...

– 16 April 1965 in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

) was a Belgian

Avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

painter. After his graduation from the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, he hooked up with the poet Paul Van Ostaijen and joined the Antwerp avant-garde movement of the 1920s. He contributed to the publications '' Ça Ira'', ''Le Centaure'' and ''Sélection'' and befriended

Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...

and

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

when they published ''Du Cubisme''. In 1921 he had an exhibition abroad for the first time (the exhibition of the Dutch artistic group De Branding with

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism (a ...

and Fokko Mees). In 1925 he became a member of Contemporary Art (Kunst van Heden). He is mentioned by name in Paul Van Ostaijen's poem 'Huldegedicht aan Singer'. He travelled to

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

for the first time in 1951. He stayed in the city of Kamina where his son Mark worked as a doctor. The journey was a revelation for him. He translated his impressions of African women into colorful

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es. The African paintings of Jespers are not genre scenes but they present a greater vision of Africa. From the mysterious gazes and the faces of the Swimmers painted in

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

in 1927 and the Congolese women of the fifties the same idealised vision of the untouchable and enigmatic African woman emerges. He also used the verre églomisé technique.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jespers, Floris 1889 births 1965 deaths Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni 20th-century Belgian painters People from Borgerhout