Four Belgian Painters at Work

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Four Belgian Painters at Work (1952)

Directed by Paul Haesaerts

Documentary · 34m

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.

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Cast

Crew

Director
Paul Haesaerts
Writer
Paul Haesaerts

Details

Original title
Quatre peintres belges au travail
Release date
1952-12-03
Runtime
34m
Genres
Documentary
Original language
NL
Spoken languages
Dutch
Countries
Belgium