The Low Countries. Jaargang 1

(1993-1994)– [tijdschrift] The Low Countries



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Creations of Earth and Fire The Ceramics of José Vermeersch José Vermeersch, Self-portrait. 1948. Canvas, 31 × 36 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). José Vermeersch, Figure. 1968. Canvas, 100 × 100 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). Flanders has an artistic tradition which has continued and developed almost organically, right up to the present day, and some of the elements found in contemporary artists can be explained in historical terms. A good example of this is the West Flemish painter and sculptor José Vermeersch. He was born in 1922 in Bissegem, a small town not far from Courtrai, where at the age of twelve he began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. During the early years of the war, he attended the Antwerp Academy to improve his painting, and after the liberation of Belgium in 1945 he returned to West Flanders. One of his tutors was Constant Permeke (1886-1952), a leading figure in the expressionist movement in Flanders, who nevertheless had little stylistic influence on his pupil. Rather, Vermeersch seemed to want to contradict his master's expressive power by
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José Vermeersch, Reno's Sister. 1968. Ceramic and pink engobe, H 138 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). José Vermeersch, Renaldo's Brother (detail). 1969. Ceramic, H 64 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). voicing a quieter, more inward expression. Later however, in the late sixties, he was to take the stirring emotion found in Permeke's work and include it in his own style. Vermeersch married shortly after finishing his studies, and several years of financial hardship followed. He was forced to look for work in the building materials industry, where he specialised in producing ceramic tiles for open fireplaces. Whether by coincidence or not, ceramics were later to play a fundamental part in his artistic career. He began painting again in 1962, and the first ceramic sculptures appeared a year later. During the ensuing period he alternated between painting and sculpting, but in the last twenty years it is mainly as a sculptor that he has made his reputation, and he has become well-known internationally in that capacity. In 1992, an exhibition of his paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in the town of Mons in Wallonia (South Belgium) met with widespread admiration, because many people thought that Vermeersch had discovered a new discipline. Although painting forms an essential part of his creative capacity, José Vermeersch is still best known as a sculptor who has chosen the difficult material of ceramics as his medium. Artists who use this material are usually to be found in the field of applied art. Those who dare to go further and use it for sculpture generally produce small or medium-sized pieces, since firing the clay is a precarious business and the average kiln cannot take large pieces. Firing larger pieces of work in several parts can cause
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José Vermeersch, Medan with Dogs. 1973. Ceramic, H 145 cm. & 55 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). José Vermeersch, Standing Figure. 1970. Ceramic, H 84 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). problems when it comes to assembling and fixing them together. What is more, different firings rarely produce exactly the same shades of colour, so that the unity of the piece is broken. Vermeersch was aware of these technical problems, and he solved them by constructing his own large kilns, based on a principle used by the earliest civilisations. In 1979 he organised an autumn camp for young people in his own district, where he demonstrated this primitive method using a so-called field kiln, a kiln dug into the ground. He has produced about one hundred sculptures using this method. While the technical side of ceramic sculpture is an important and difficult area, what the artist is trying to achieve is more important still. It was a natural consequence of Vermeersch's development as a painter that he should move out into the third dimension. His interest in the Italian fresco painter Giotto can be seen in a number of the portraits, and especially selfportraits, which he has produced over the years. In contrast with the more emphatic use of colour for which he opted later on, the self-portraits are almost always painted in delicate shades, and the typical colour of ceramic fits in with this pattern. When he occasionally produces sculptures in polychrome, he personally does not think it enhances their expressiveness. Part of the meaning he wants to invest in his statues comes from the natural colour of his material.
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José Vermeersch, Seated Woman with Dog. 1974. Ceramic, H 100 cm. & 55 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). His theme is intentionally a limited one, but it is no less universal of that: the human and the animal. He almost always portrays human figures naked, because he wants to show them free of the influence of cultural connotations. Clothing indicates rank, class and background, and it adds something to the person which covers, conceals and falsifies. A person is born naked, so nakedness can also be seen as a symbol for life. The figures of Vermeersch hide nothing, and they are rarely beautiful in the classical sense. They present themselves with all their faults, and these are not hidden: quite the contrary. The human shapes are not deformed but they are not very pretty either - they have lived, and so they do not fit into the canon of the classical Greek ideal of beauty. In short they are archetypes of the physical human image, as it is also portrayed by the American photographer Diane Arbus. This feeling comes out even more strongly in the torsos, where the body is merely a shape, depersonalised, almost abstract, a universal object which is known but not named. The posture of the figures is also important. Sitting or standing they emanate a certain dignity, despite their physical imperfections, similar in a way to Egyptian sculptures from the Middle Kingdom. Their dignity does not disguise the shabbiness which always goes with nakedness, but rather elevates it to a universally recognisable image of the human. Prudishness is put aside in order to penetrate to the essence of the human being - a kind of
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José Vermeersch, Seated Woman. 1988. Ceramic and white engobe, H 104 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). José Vermeersch, Seated Woman with Dog. 1992. Ceramic, H 90 cm. & 30 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). dignified helplessness in a world where everything has become an illusion and where the things that make people exciting - mind, character, impotence and capacity for love - are ignored. The human figure is often portrayed together with a dog, and there is a clear association between the two. The dog is man's best friend. The animal and the human each continue where the other leaves off, and both are portrayed as naked: the animal because that is its natural manifestation, and man because he wants to present himself in the same way. Here the dog is not a pet, but a being of equal value, with his own characteristics and feelings. He too is a universal phenomenon, since he is of no specific breed or variety. He and man belong together, equally anonymous and equally timeless. Vermeersch has succeeded in portraying this timelessness in an inimitable way, which fits perfectly with his material. Here both man and animal are created anew from the earth, that primal material which becomes as fragile as man, but which is hardened by fire - a symbol of life experience. One thing which is noticeable about this artist is that he always
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José Vermeersch, Seated Woman. 1992. Ceramic, H 120 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). José Vermeersch, The Three Sisters. 1993. Ceramic, H 3 × 130 cm. (Photo by Sergyssels). approaches his characters with gentleness, respect and a certain sense of tenderness. Within the context of contemporary Flemish art history, José Vermeersch is a unique figure. The way he uses his fragile material to express his feelings is both classical and contemporary. The classical elements are: a certain monumentalism, a quest for balance between quiet contemplation and exuberance, a certain irony hidden beneath the surface and a joy in handling his material. He has also succeeded in using ceramics as a comprehensive means of expression within the Flemish tradition, and he manages to use his medium to transpose universal shapes into a contemporary vision of modern man. ludo bekkers Translated by Steve Judd.