Gustave, Ghent and gardenias

Last Sunday I went to Ghent for an article on the Gustave van de Woestyne retrospective at the MSK. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the train was packed with senior citizens who were apparently all going to the Floraliën aka the fancy flower show.

Instead of heading straight down to the museum, I decided to take a walk along the river Lys through the historical centre where I was delighted to encounter no less than 4 overcrowded but charming markets: a regular food based market, an antiques market where I bought a lovely lapis lazuli necklace, a book fair and a flower market which was oddly enough my favorite. An entire square filled with flowers, plants, trees and herbs made me giddy with green goodness and sad that I've only got a terrace to recreate my version of paradise on.

After some luscious lunch, a cookie macchiato and a walk in the park I went to the museum and stumbled across yet another market, a flea market to be precise and the tenth annual art books fair just below the steps of the MSK. Ghent truly is the place to be on a sunny Sunday.

I'll be the first to admit that I knew nothing about Gustave van de Woestyne before entering this exhibit but I left it pleasantly surprised and enlightened. He was one of the pioneers of modern Flemish art at the beginning of the 20th century due to his striking mix of Symbolism, Expressionism and Cubism. He mainly paints religious themes, portraits and some landscapes but what's interesting about his work is the way you see the same topics evolve from Classicism towards Modernism throughout the course of one man's career.

His portraits especially, seem treacherously simple but have a timeless quality due to their lack of surroundings. They also exude an almost tactile timelessness induced by their neutral colors with a dash of gold and a hint of despair. But what really got to me, were the often asymmetrical oval eyes that created an unnerving almost stalker-like presence in the room. Freaky stuff but definately worth a look.