Het einde van het kunstonderwijs

Raoul De Keyser (1930-2012) geniet vooral bekendheid als schilder, maar van de late jaren 1940 tot de vroege jaren ‘60 was hij actief als sportjournalist en kunstcriticus. Meer bepaald verzorgde hij tussen 1958 en 1964 voor de Oost-Vlaamse editie van De Gazet van Antwerpen de rubriek Tentoonstellingen te Gent die ons een interessante dwarsdoorsnede biedt van de toenmalige Gentse kunstwereld. De volledig in vergetelheid geraakte kunstkritische activiteiten van De Keyser vormen het onderwerp van het pas verschenen boek Tentoonstellingen te Gent: De kunstkritiek van Raoul De Keyser, 1949-1964, dat werd gerealiseerd in samenwerking met medewerkers van het onderzoeksproject Gent, speelveld van de beeldende kunst, 1957-1987aan KASK & Conservatorium.

Raoul De Keyser (1930-2012) is mainly known as a painter, but from the late 1940s to the early 1960s he was active as a sports journalist and art critic. More specifically, between 1958 and 1964 he did the section Tentoonstellingen te Gent (Exhibitions in Ghent) for the East Flemish edition of De Gazet van Antwerpen, which offers us an interesting cross-section of the Ghent art world of the time. De Keyser's completely forgotten art-critical activities form the subject of the recently published book Tentoonstellingen te Gent: De kunstkritiek van Raoul De Keyser, 1949-1964, which was realised in collaboration with staff members of the research project Gent, speelveld van de beeldende kunst, 1957-1987 at KASK & Conservatorium.

Programma

• 15:00: welcome and introduction (Wouter Davidts, voorzitter KB45)
• 15:10: Raoul De Keyser as art critic 1949-1964 (by author and editor Steven Jacobs) 
• 15:40: a virtual tour of Ghent galleries and art associations anno 1960 such as VTB-Studio, Galerie Vyncke-Van Eyck, Het Antenneke, Taverne Antonio and Galerie Bert De Clerck (by authors Godart Bakkers and Wouter De Vleeschouwer)
• 16:00: talk with artist Paul Van Gysegem
• 16:15: einde

In 1955, the Ghent group Studio E is founded as a 'smallfilm working group' to professionalise via smallfilm club into a non-profit organisation in 1968. Studio E presents itself as a centre for art films and films about art. From the 1970s onwards, they manifest themselves more explicitly as an autonomous art film group. This becomes most emphatically visible in the separation from the Verbond der Amateur Kineasten van Oost-Vlaanderen (V.A.K.O.V.). Studio E's films were collective creations. They valued film as an autonomous medium, sought connections with other art forms and, for artistic reasons, resolutely chose to work with 16mm film. Although Studio E never grew into a full-fledged filmmakers' cooperative, as several emerged in America and Europe in the 1960s-1970s, their films show that this ambition was present.

In the presence of artist Leo Copers and Claude Vanderschueren, former secretary of Studio E

The research on Studio E and Gustaaf Prils took place within the context of the research of ‘Gent, speelveld van de beeldende kunst (1957-1987)' at KASK & Conservatorium. A first presentation culminated in The Letters Project at KIOSK with Claude Vanderschueren's letter to the members of Studio E. 'Gent, speelveld van de beeldende kunst (1957-1987)' consists of Naninga Lens, Sofie Frederix, Wouter De Vleeschouwer, Koen Brams and Godart Bakkers.

Programme

• Gustaaf Prils, Kreatie, BE • 1961 • 15' • colour • digital
  Documentary on the creation and placement of Berjan Coolens' sculpture, 11-tonne French stone statue that has been given a place at the Ghent Water Sports Course.

• Dirk Liefooghe, Cultivant mes Symboles, BE • 1964 • 15' • colour • digital
  Poetic documentary on Pierre Vlerick set to a poem by Pjeroo Roobjee.

• Gustaaf Prils, Genesis, BE • 1974 • 12' • colour • digital
  Film about Roger Raveel, set to a poem by Roland Jooris. Filmed on the occasion of his retrospective at St Peter's Abbey.

• Gustaaf Prils, Order of Life, BE • 1973 • 16' • colour • digital
  Experimental documentary looking at contemporary society through printmaking.
  

• Gustaaf Prils, The Mysterious and Enigmatic Life of Leo Copers, BE • 1974 • 5' • colour • digital
  Documentaire over Leo Copers

In 1973, Belgian painter Joseph Willaert made a series of letter-size paintings and showed them the following year at Ghent's Galerie Elsa von Honolulu Loringhoven. At the time, the emerging artist was best known for his figurative work and installations that share visual strategies with the pop art movement. Language plays an important role in this, and from the early 1970s takes the form of punitive notes, an essay, to be eventually presented as quotations on canvas. With the letter paintings, the artist surprised by presenting painted versions of existing and fictional letters as painting. In The Letters Project by Joseph Willaert, the paintings will be shown together again for the first time, accompanied by never-before-shown archival material.

In this lecture, curator Godart Bakkers will elaborate on the context of some of the letters, and the significance of these paintings within the broader oeuvre and career of Joseph Willaert, who in the 1970s was also strongly connected to the Ghent art scene.