Four painters, one pane of glass, and the audacity to film art being born in real time.
Belgian art historian and filmmaker Paul Haesaerts (1901–1974) made a significant contribution to the promotion of modern Flemish art. In the late 1940s, he started experimenting with the medium of film to practice a new form of lens-based art criticism. The understudied documentary "Quatre peintres belges au travail" (1952) presents Belgian artists Edgar Tytgat, Albert Dasnoy, Jean Brusselmans and Paul Delvaux at work in their studio. On a large sheet of glass placed in front of the camera, they each paint one of the seasons that also represent a stage in a person’s life. A close reading of this Kodachrome color film sheds light on the context of mid-century art reproductions, mass media and post-war Flemish culture. It also examines in what way this film operates as Haesaerts’s concept of cinéma critique, while raising questions as to the way Haesaerts attempted to reconcile the spatial art of painting with the temporal medium of film.
Cinematography
Kodachrome glory making paint look edible
Direction
Haesaerts literally invented art criticism as cinema
Director
Paul Haesaerts
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Haesaerts basically invented the 'artist at work' documentary format that every Netflix art series now rips off. You're welcome, 21st century.
Delvaux was so camera-shy that Haesaerts had to film him painting his famous skeleton-horse-women from a hidden angle—those surrealist nudes everyone's seen? Filmed like a nature documentary about a rare bird.
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