DÉTAILS DE L'IMAGE

Rueb Modern and Contemporary Art

Lucebert (Amsterdam 1924-1994 Alkmaar)
Nomadic, 1959
Mixed media on paper
63 x 49 cm
Signed and dated: VI '59
Certificate by the Lucebert Stichting

Lucebert, pseudonym of Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk, was an experimental painter-poet who was part of the Cobra movement in the years 1948-1949. Initially known mainly as the foreman of the group avant-garde poets 'De Vijftigers', he increasingly devoted himself to painting from the late 1950s onwards. His work is characterized by a childlike figurative-expressionist style, closely related to the spontaneous style of the Cobra group. His late works show a pessimistic view of man, with grim figures and distorted faces. In his early, more sought-after work however, of which Nomadic shown by Rueb is a superb example, clumsy creatures and fabled animals populate the picture plane. Lucebert's famous line of poetry ‘Everything of value is defenseless’ seems applicable here: the endearing characters move us through their vulnerability and seem to tell us that everything that really touches us, is elusive and defenseless.