“Misère au borinage”, Labour and Poverty as figures of Belgian art ...

Rui Oliveira Lopes

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• Publié par: emiqahyx
• Nombre de lectures: 183
• Langue: English

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“ M i s è r e a u b o r i n a g e ” , L a b o u r a n d P o v e r t y a s f i g u r e s o f B e l g i a n a r t a c c l a i m e d i n F r a n c e b e t w e e n 1 9 1 9 a n d 1 9 3 9 1

Céline De Potter 2

A b s t r a c t: The article’s title, “Misère au borinage”, pays homage to Henri Storck’s and Joris Ivens’s documentary shot at the Levant’s mines near Mons in Belgium during the heavy strikes of 1932. This film denounces the harsh lives of miners. It also definitely twins a representation of labour with a representation of poverty. This combination is the crowning achievement of a long iconographical tradition that goes from Flemish Primitives to the sculptor Constantin Meunier, which is well-known for its description of pain, extreme poverty and hard work. However, it is less known that this iconographical tradition has continued during the interwar years. This tradition had a great success in France during that period with all kind of art amateurs, from the avant- garde to a more conservative audience.

Keywords: iconography, labour, poverty, expressionism, interwar years, Belgium, France, 20 th century

1  ContemporaryI would like to thank Virginie Devillez, curator at the Archives of Art in Belgium, whose help was one more time very valuable, and Frederic Chappey, organizer of the study day about ‘Pauvres and Pauvreté dans l’art’ organized at the University Charles de Gaulle - Lille 3 on January 28, 2008, which allowed me to initiate this discussion. The translation has been reviewed by Sarah de Haro. 2  3, in collaboration Lille Art at the University of ContemporaryPHD student and lecturer in History of with the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium

“Misère au borinage”, Labour and Poverty as figures of Belgian art acclaimed in France between 1919 and 1939

The article’s title, “Misère au borinage”, pays homage to Henri Storck’s and Joris Ivens’s documentary shot at the Levant’s mines near Mons in Belgium during the heavy strikes of 1932 (fig. 1 and 2). This film denounces the harsh life of miners. It also definitely twins a representation of labour with a representation of poverty and this has been an emblematic phenomenon of the era. This combination is the crowning achievement of a long iconographical tradition that goes from Flemish Primitives to the sculptor Constantin Meunier, which is well-known for its description of pain, extreme poverty and hard work. It is less known that this tradition has continued in the Interwar years and that it attracted much interest from French art lovers, would they be related to Avant-Garde or not.

Fig. 1 et 2 : Extracts of the documentary Misère au borinage shooted by Henri Storck et Joris Ivens at the Levant’s mines in Belgium in 1932. [Photo: all rights reserved]

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