Jef Geys (signed & numbered) - ABC Ecole de Paris 1990
VISIE VIII
"Whoever follows the (expensive) course of Ecole de Paris, will learn do draw properly. Do this, do that - and your talent will develop, you enter the field of the arts. (Isn't there a contradiction between the fact that every step is demonstrated and the appeal for individuality?) In the end the diligent pupil will be "moved to tears of gratification". Jef Geys executes the tasks obediently. But when you look closer, his adaptation is not so complete. It is very unlikely that the fine drawings were to be drawn on brown wrapping paper: a vulgar material which opposes the artistic illusion. Moreover, also the content is disrupted: a model with a distinct racist bias becomes the "basic drawing" for the whole series. The pupil-artist has been casually inflicted with some ideological stock-in trade. The naïvety has gone, we can start to think."
Through this very important artist's book, Jef Geys plays with the codes of kitsch and learning, to question what we need to know and what we don't, what's essential and what's useless, in terms of knowledge and personal affect.
Zedelgem, Stichting Kunst & projecten - 1990
NP - NL/FR - 21x29.7cm - softcover - very good condition - SIGNED & numbered #77/250
"Whoever follows the (expensive) course of Ecole de Paris, will learn do draw properly. Do this, do that - and your talent will develop, you enter the field of the arts. (Isn't there a contradiction between the fact that every step is demonstrated and the appeal for individuality?) In the end the diligent pupil will be "moved to tears of gratification". Jef Geys executes the tasks obediently. But when you look closer, his adaptation is not so complete. It is very unlikely that the fine drawings were to be drawn on brown wrapping paper: a vulgar material which opposes the artistic illusion. Moreover, also the content is disrupted: a model with a distinct racist bias becomes the "basic drawing" for the whole series. The pupil-artist has been casually inflicted with some ideological stock-in trade. The naïvety has gone, we can start to think."
Through this very important artist's book, Jef Geys plays with the codes of kitsch and learning, to question what we need to know and what we don't, what's essential and what's useless, in terms of knowledge and personal affect.
Zedelgem, Stichting Kunst & projecten - 1990
NP - NL/FR - 21x29.7cm - softcover - very good condition - SIGNED & numbered #77/250