JAN FABRE (né en 1958)

Lot 97
Go to lot
Estimation :
80000 - 120000 EUR
JAN FABRE (né en 1958)
Leda, the angel of death, 2004 Coleoptera shells on wood and swan Coleoptera shells on wood and swan 125 x 295 x 170 cm 49 1/4 x 116 1/8 x 66 15/16 in. PROVENANCE Private collection, Belgium EXHIBITIONS Royal Museum of Fine Arts - Antwerp, 2006, May 13 - September 13 Die Schone Und Das Ungeheuer (Beauty and the Beast) - Museum of the Residenzgalerie, Salzburg, 2007, July 14 - November 4 Jan Fabre, the Angel of Metamorphosis, Musée du Louvre - Paris, 2008, 9 April - 7 July Dead or Alive, Royal Tropical Institute - Amsterdam, 2011, November 2 - September 9 A poils et a plumes, Musée départemental de Flandre - Cassel, 2017, March - 9 July BIBLIOGRAPHY MAES Frank, Jan Fabre à la recherche d'Utopia, sculptures et installations 1977 - 2005, Bärtsch-Salomon Editions, Geneva, 2006, p. 124 DI PIETRANTONIO Giacinto, Jan Fabre, Homo Faber, Brussels, 2006, illustrated work in colour Catalogue of the exhibition Jan Fabre au Louvre: l'ange de la métamorphose, Musée du Louvre, Gallimard, Paris, 2006, colour illustration page 58 Jan Fabre Belgian artist Jan Fabre was born, lives and works in Antwerp. He received his artistic training at the School of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the same city. A multidisciplinary artist, he is a painter, sculptor, draughtsman, choreographer and director. Beyond his performances, he develops a plastic research based on various materials such as his own blood, ink, stylobille, beetle shells, stuffed animals, bones or marble. His work focuses on several main themes: the question of metamorphosis, the relationship between Man and nature, vanities, death and resurrection, and the dialogue between art and science. Taking the coffin as the main element, we can understand the work as a vanity. Like a still life, which underlines the ephemeral nature of life through numerous small details, this coffin reminds us, in a much more direct way, of our fatal fate. It imposes itself on the viewer and reminds him that death can strike us at any moment, even in mid-air. Jan Fabre uses beetles on numerous occasions in his artistic production, whether to cover the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors in the Royal Palace in Brussels or to create anthropomorphic sculptures such as his angel silhouettes. In ancient Egypt, the scarab represents the god Khepri, symbol of the rebirth of the sun. By extension, it embodies the personification of the creator god. The artist finds in it a resonance with nature, creator and source of a life in constant renewal. Moreover, his iridescent tones and variations in colour between green and blue are close to his obsession with metamorphosis and changes in the body. The work as a whole can therefore be understood as a reflection on nature and its sublime; on the passage of time and the changes it brings about in the body; on the metamorphoses and renewals that occur after the passage of death. There is a similar work, produced a few years later, in 2006: Nature morte à l'artiste, presented at the Louvre in 2008 during the exhibition l'Ange de la métamorphose. In this version, it is no longer a swan but a peacock (again taking the title as a basis for reading, the peacock can be seen as a personification of Jan Fabre, and the coffin as a vanity which underlines the ephemeral nature of his art or of art in general).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue