Look inside
|
KOBE
Ingenious simplicity
ISBN: 9789058565662
(HB - E/ F/ NL)
€
Kobe, artistic alias of Jacques Saelens (1950-2015) has made sculptures that toy with twodimensionality his trademark. His broad, thin figures hardly make use of the third dimension. His brainchilds are lyrical, look casual and carefree, but at the same time they are restrained by a formal straightjacket. His works radiate a contagious joyful simplicity, and at the same time their construction is very thought through. They are born in the mind of a perfectionist and esthete who continually strives to eradicate all that is anecdotical. Their round, feminine shapes and cheerful poses seduce, but their superhuman and mysterious calmness also exclude. Faces are closed and stripped of all personal traits. Thematically the female figure and the horse dominate the oeuvre. Classical themes with a long art historical tradition. But Kobe carves not just 'a' woman or 'a' horse, he sculpts archetypes and essences. The simplicity radiating from Kobe's images conceals their ingenious - sometimes engineered - nature. Between the artist's idea and the finished image lies a world of abstraction and reasoning, a long period of reflection and solving structural problems.
|
