In the gallery: a review of the Constant Permeke retrospective

On Sunday I went to Bozar with a friend to see a retrospective of Constant Permeke, a Belgian expressionist from the first half of the 20^th Century (the gallery we wanted to go was closed on Sunday). It had been heavily promoted (Bozar is among Brussels’ most prestigious galleries) and was well attended. His work work is  a mixture of sea and landscapes, nudes, drawings and painting of everyday peasant life (especially fisherfolk) and some bronze sculptures.  So in one sense he was quite a renaissance man, with a broad oeuvre.  He sold truck loads of art in his lifetime.  Half way round my friend asked why some artists made it – and by implication why others didn’t (Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime). It was a good question as I was equally underwhelmed by his work.  His paintings of people’s daily lives were sombre and somewhat depressing (in the style of Van Gogh’s ‘Potato Eaters’), his land and seascapes lacked the luminosity of (let’s say) Turner and his nudes seemed derivative of other artists of the time (Picasso in his earlier days and Matisse etc.).  There were some OK pieces in the collection (the acid test is would you like that on your wall and few passed muster). At the end of the exhibition there was quote from the artist saying his life had been extraordinarily unremarkable. We both left the gallery feeling that the same could be said about his retrospective.  Maybe one needs to see unremarkable art sometimes to appreciate the remarkable stuff.