Date
15/03/2008
-
15/06/2008
In the spring of 2008 the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp sketched a profile of artist Jan Cox.
The Belgian painter Jan Cox was born in The Hague on the 27th of August 1919. He spent the largest part of his childhood in Amsterdam and moved to Antwerp in 1936, where he attended classes at the 'National Higher Institute of Fine Arts'. In 1945 he founded the group 'Jeune Peinture Belge' along with other artists. A few years later he was introduced to the members of the CoBrA-group and he made lifelong friendships with Pierre Alechinsky and Hugo Claus. From 1948 his attention shifted to the United States. He exhibited in the famous 'Curt Valentin Gallery' in New York, and from 1956 he was Head of the Painting Department of the 'School of the Museum of Fine Arts' in Boston. When he returned to Belgium in 1974, he joined the artists' circle of Gallery 'De Zwarte Panter' in Antwerp.
No chronological overview
The exhibition does not present a general and chronological overview, but maps out the artist's profile on the basis of key works and thematic ensembles: the artist's life, the creative process, Calvary, the theme of the woman, Orpheus and the Iliad. Furthermore, a number of Jan Cox's objects that had never been displayed before will introduce the visitor to a different, 'playful' Cox.
This exhibition was accompanied by the publication Jan Cox: Living One's Art.
