Middle Gate

    NLEN

    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

    Back
    Le fou rire du nouveau riche, 1950
    Jan Cox
    Print , 488 x 350 mm
    lithograph on paper

    At the beginning of the 1950's, Cox starts experimenting with making multicolored prints on his own litho-press.  Le fou rire du nouveau riche is one such work, and the M HKA collection contains several printer's proofs of this lithograph.  Feeling limited in his printing technique and not wholly satisfied with the results, in 1952 Cox decides to call on the celebrated Parisian printing atelier of Mourlot.  Here he could realize his color litho's in ideal conditions, and profit from this workshop's accumulated experience - as did fellow artists like Bernard Villon, Marc Chagall and Alberto Giacometti. 

    This collaboration resulted in some wonderful works such as Verhuizing ’s avonds (1952), Vreugdetakken (1952) and the portrait of his girlfriend Yvonne: Verrassing [Sursprise] from 1952. 

    In 1953 Cox exhibits a selection of his lithographic work in Amsterdam.  This exhibition later also traveled to Indonesia, and a companion catalogue was published with texts by J.H.W. Veenstra. 

    Back