Schoorsteen in de wolken (Palais des Boosaards)

Description

In 1983, René Daniëls created a series of paintings in which he plays with the pronunciation of the French term ‘beaux arts’ (‘fine arts’), which to Dutch ears sounds like ‘boozaar’ and which in turn can easily be associated with the word ‘boosaards’, meaning villains. Daniëls has a love-hate relationship with the art world. While he believes recognition to be important, he also sees the negative aspects of the museum and gallery sector.

In this colourful, hectic painting, we can see a man with his legs and head facing to the right of the picture, and his arms swept to the left. They look as though they are being blown sideways by a stream of air coming from a fan on the right, and which could also be a top hat. The man possibly has a cloth in his hands and has just conjured the stream of air from the top hat. The same man appears in a painting from 1984 ("Alzumeazume"), but there the fan/top hat has clearly become a chimney on the roof of a house that has been rotated 90 degrees. In 1983, Daniëls created more paintings depicting a top hat. Is the artist a magician who is expected to entertain an audience with new tricks all the time?

[2020]

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