-
Artworks
Félix LABISSE 1905, Marchiennes-1982, Neuilly-sur-Seine
Jean-Louis Barrault ne “Il Processo” di Kafka, 1947Oil on canvasSigned lower right: LABISSE Signed, dated and titled: J. L. Barrault dans “Le Procès” de Kafka Labisse. 47 (on the reverse)
SOLD
Provenance
Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels; Oscar Mairlot, Verviers (before 1970); Belgium, private collection.
Exhibitions
Venice, XXIVème Biennale de Venise, June – September 1948, p. 255, no.17;
Paris, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, Société du Salon d’automne, September – November 1949, p. 51, no. 806;
Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte Moderna et Sao Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna, Félix Labisse, no.12 (illustrated);
Buenos Aires, Instituto de arte moderno, Labisse, July 1950, p.8, no.11 (illustrated);
Knokke-le-Zoute, Grande salle des expositions du Casino Communal, Jeune Peinture Française, July 1951, no. 17;
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Félix Labisse, January 1953, no.36;
Liege, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Félix Labisse, February 1953, no. 53;
Colony, Institut de France, Félix Labisse, November 1955;
Florence, Art et Théâtre, 1957:
Paris, Galerie Montmorency, Rencontre arts et lettres, 1959;
Knokke-le-Zoute, Casino Communal, XIIIe festival belge d’été, Félix Labisse, Exposition rétrospective, July – September 1960, no.29 (illustrated);
Moscow, Peinture française, 1961;
Castres, Musée Goya, Portraits d’artistes contaimporains du spectacle, 1964, no.4 (illustrated, pl. IV);
Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective Félix Labisse, February – March 1969, no.54 (illustrated);
Malines, Cultureel Centrum, De menselijke figuur in de kunst, 1910 – 1960, September – November 1971, no.70;
Rotterdam, MuseumBoymans-Van Beuningen, Félix Labisse, January – March 1973, p.70, no.24 (illustrated, p.23);
Ostend, Casino Kursaal, Labisse, 50 ans de peinture, June – September 1979, no.40;
Douai, Centre d’Action Culturelle et Musée de la Chartreuse, Félix Labisse, Rétrospective, September – November 1986, 122, no. 21 (illustrated in colour, p. 57);
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Renault – Barrault, March – June 1999;
Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse et Carcassonne, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Félix Labisse, 2005 – 2006, p.121, no.33 (illustrated in colour).
Literature
Mizue, Tokyo, June 1952 (illustrated);
La Meuse, Liege, 2 July 1960 (illustrated);
La Lanterne, Brussels, 5 July 1960 (illustrated);
Le Figaro littéraire, Paris, 16 July 1960 (illustrated);
Le Soir, Bruxelles, July 1960 (illustrated);
Télémagazine, Paris, 29 July 1967 (illustrated);
Waldberg, Félix Labisse, Brussels, 1970, p.314 (illustrated, p.149);
Tubentia, Netherlands, 2 February 1973 (illustrated);
Bulletin Musée Boijmans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam, no.3 1973 (illustrated);
Volkskrant, Netherlands, 17 February 1973 (illustrated);
De Tijd, Netherlands, 24 February 1973 (illustrated);
Brachot, Labisse, Catalogue de l’œvre peint, Brussels, 1979, p. 126, no.230 (illustrated).
Born in the French town of Marchiennes in 1905, Félix Labisse moved with his family to the Belgian coast when he was 17 years old. Escaping the family tradition of making a career as a sailor, the young Labisse devoted himself to painting. In Ostend, he and his sister Antoinette founded the Galerie d’Art Moderne, a painting gallery which they ran for two years. He took his first steps as a painter under the tutillege of James Ensor. In 1930s Paris, Labisse became friends with artists such as Robert Desnos, Antonin Artaud, Paul Éluard, Man Ray, Germaine Krull, Jean-Louis Barrault and the Prévert brothers. The painter also had a close bond with Christian Dotremont, who wrote a monograph on him in 1946. Labisse went on to divide his life and career between Belgium and Paris, where he died in 1982 (Neuilly). Alongside his pursuit of painting, he worked as a set designer for theatre, dance and opera.
While he was not a member of the group that formed around André Breton, his work clearly occupies a place in the world of surrealism. Fantastical, disturbing and populated by hybrid creatures, it evokes the disquieting nature of existence or, simply, as explained by Eugène Ionesco, “shows us the world in a way that is different to how we are accustomed to seeing or understanding it”.
In 1947, Labisse painted a portrait of Jean-Louis Barrault (1910-1994) playing the role of Joseph K. in The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925). The work was inspired by his collaboration with the actor and director when, that same year, he designed the costumes and sets for an adaptation of the novel by André Gide, played and directed by Barrault and presented at Théâtre Marigny in Paris. Jean-Louis Barrault observed: “Creating a world, inducing a dream, experiencing blood and love, rejecting heaviness, working in magic formulas, translating metamorphoses ‒ these are what make Labisse an artist “allied” with the world of theatre. His paintings are an extension of theatre. It made sense that Labisse would become a man of the theatre. He is one of the painter-poets. He brings objects to life”.The strange, nightmarish ambiance of The Trial is expressed in this painting. The monochromatic green palette, the lack of any human presence apart from the model, and the hallway that appears to beckon one to follow the path of death, as in the novel, are all elements used by the artist to illustrate the absurd, anguishing world facing the protagonist, who is unjustly accused of a crime whose very nature is unknown to him.
Laura Neve
