Middle Gate

The exhibition project Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna is a collaboration between M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) and the cultural centre de Werft in Geel. Middle Gate II is the follow up to the exhibition Middle Gate, curated by Jan Hoet in Geel in 2013. The exhibition concept is closely tied to the legend of the holy Dymphna, saint of the possessed, the mentally ill and patroness against epilepsy and insanity. The legend of Dymphna shares a strong connection to the identity of Geel, "the charitable city".

Jan Cox

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(c)image: M HKA

The Fog In Maine, Boston, 1957

Jan Cox

Painting , 350 x 350 mm

oil on cardboard

This gouache entitled The Fog in Maine, Boston (1957) is a preliminary study for the painting The Fog from 1960, but based on the earlier painting The Fog in Maine from 1957. The impulse for the work arose out of a late-night car ride with friends when a large moth suddenly flew against their windshield.

In the first painting from 1957, the moth is recognizably portrayed with, on the right (just as in the later works as well), a bird's head with outstretched neck sticks out from above a layer of mist. In the preparatory study for the subsequent painting, Cox transforms this moth into a visionary image, thereby imparting a more dramatic accent to the rather neutral atmosphere.

In his artistic creations, Jan Cox will continually return to certain themes and motifs, always developing them further: “You can get ten new ideas, ones you hadn't earlier thought about, but that emerge while you're working. The more you work, the more work keeps coming. There's no end to it..." (Jan Cox)

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