Lucebert

The exhibition on Lucebert, a fundamental member of post-war Dutch poetry and the author of visual works, includes 146 pieces, among which are drawings and paintings made partly in Spain between 1964 and 1994. The catalogue published for the exhibition is illustrated with reproductions of the works shown and contains essays by Cees Nooteboom, Lasse Sodeberg, Ad Petersen, a text about Lucebert by Antonio Saura and a selection of poems by Lucebert partly unpublished in Spain, where an anthology was brought out by Plaza y Janés in 1978. Lucebert, the pseudonym of Lubertus J. Swaanswijk (Amsterdam 1924-1994), drew and painted since he was a child and in 1938 won a scholarship to the School of Decorative Arts in Amsterdam. At first he became known for his poetry; in 1948 he joined the Dutch Experimental Group, and shortly afterwards he became a member of the Reflex group, mainly as a poet although he also contributed gouaches and drawings, with Corneille, Constant and Appel, who later became the Cobra movement. In 1949 Lucebert participated with his poem-paintings in the first international exhibition of Cobra at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and his work became well known on an international scale after he participated in exhibitions like Documenta II in Kassel, the Bienniale de la Jeunesse in Paris —where he was awarded a prize— Vitalità n’ell Arte in Venice in 1959, the International Exhibition at Pittsburgh in 1961 and others in Japan, Italy and Germany and the retrospective exhibition on his work held by the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1961. After the fifties, his revolutionary poetry had considerable influence in his country, and after it had been published in Germany in 1955, Bertolt Brecht invited him on a visit to East Berlin. In his early years he started to be attracted by the work of Picasso, Arp, Miró and other avant-garde artists. In the late forties, his drawings and gouaches began to depict mythical beings similar to those that appeared in the paintings of some of his friends who were also members of the Cobra group. A subtle poetic play of lines and colours of great freedom constitutes a constant feature in his work. Around 1960 he assimilated Cobra’s mythologizing language, inspired in a representationalism that fascinated him and reminded him of drawings by children and the handicapped. Lucebert’s work shows us a deformed, caricaturesque world, a demoniacal view of our own world peopled by strange creatures, animals and monsters. Throughout the sixties, his lines became harder and more and more aggressive. During this period, with ruthless cruelty, Lucebert portrayed human beings dominated by their passions and obsessions. Lucebert was especially fascinated by Spain, its peoples, its language and its art and literature. After 1963 he bought a house on the Alicante coast, where he spent long periods, concentrating on his work and living in relative isolation. He sporadically met some of his friends, such as Antonio Saura, who considered Lucebert his alter ego from the north.