New Key

Modern Belgian Art from the Simon Collection

Howe Jeffery W.

The Simon Collection, housed in London and France, is the finest assemblage of modern Belgian art outside Belgium. Accompanying an exhibition held at Boston College's McMullen Museum, "A New Key" presents fifty-three works never before displayed in North America, including important paintings by Rene Magritte, James Ensor, Frits van den Berge, Paul Delvaux, and others.

Full-color reproductions of the paintings are accompanied by seven essays that illuminate their significance and the distinctive contribution of Belgian art to the development of modernism. Addressing themes like the rise of Freudian psychology, the influence of carnival, and the trauma of two world wars, "A New Key" forges a new understanding of Belgium's long-neglected role in the development of modern art.

Contents:

Director's Foreword
Nancy Netzer

Preface and Historical Outline
Jeffery Howe

Pauvre Belgique: Collecting Practices and Belgian Art in and Outside of Belgium
Sura Levine

The Simon Collection – a Personal Perspective
Patrick Derom

A New Key: Modernism and National Identity in Belgian Art
Jeffery Howe

Ensor's Parrot
Katherine Nahum

"Laughter Liberates Us from Fear" – The Place of Carnival in Our Lives
Susan A. Michalczyk

Occupied Belgium: The Art of War
John J. Michalczyk

Freudian Themes in the Symbolist Work of George Minne
Claude Cernuschi

Works in the Exhibition

About the Author

Jeffery W. Howe is professor of fine arts at Boston College. He is the author of many books, including "Houses of Worship" and "The Symbolist Art of Fernand Khnopff".

Back to the list of books