Issue 28, December 2008

Project Midi, Brussels
21 September – 25 October

Review by Sam Steverlynck

In the group show l'après moderne, British curator Charles Danby unites a number of contemporary artists whose work can be seen as an elaboration of the modernist legacy. Regarding the modernist agenda rather as an unfinished project than a demarcated period in art history, the exhibition attempts to reexamine the modernist heritage by investigating how its formal vocabulary survives throughout contemporary art. Modernist visual language still inspires contemporary artists, but it apparently also leads to a number of bleak, uninspired copies.

Rather than postmodernist appropriations or pastiches, the selected works pick up some of the formal preoccupations explored in earlier Modernism. Michelle McKeown's paintings of fractals clearly stem from a modernist sensibility, yet contribute to an actualisation of Modernism's findings by integrating results of new scientific experiments. London- based Athanasios Argianas's sculptures do evoke the work of historic predecessors like Naum Gabo and Moholy-Nagy, yet easily combine these references with more contemporary sources of inspiration. Also fascinating is the work of Flore Nové-Josserand – here represented in Corner Piece (2007) – whose perceptual objects consist of a formal examination of colour and volume.

Modernism is at the core of Sadie Murdoch's artistic practice, not only by the use of formalist devices but also in the way she thematises the (phallocentric) history of the movement. In her photographic reenactments, she excavates Modernism's history by drawing attention to female designers like Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich or Eileen Gray, who have often remained in the shadow of their better-known male counterparts. Besides Reich in Reverse (2005) – a portrait of Bauhaus architect Reich – she also shows Black and White Look with Colour Model (2008), a photograph taking the relationship of Josephine Baker with both Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier as a starting point. The photograph combines a bust of Baker with a scale model of the never - realised house that Loos designed for her. The building's characteristic black and white horizontal stripes are echoed throughout the entire picture.

At its best, the exhibition results in a contemporary approach to the modernist discourse, but it also leads to works dwelling in nostalgia, lacking any artistic relevance to, or added value for, a twenty-first-century audience. The abstract expressionist gesture paintings of Denis Stuart are the kind of works it's still surprising to see in contemporary art galleries. Bruce Ingram's totem-like tribal sculptures evoke outsider art, but look dated, lacking any sense of self-awareness. These works are kitsch, but not even in a postmodern, tongue-in-cheek way. Rather than being autonomous contemporary works, Dallas Seitz's assemblage sculptures revitalise Dadaist and surrealist sculpture, but don't quite manage to get beyond the level of homage to their sources. More convincing is the work of Karen Tang: her sculpture Siren Stephen and His Mirror (2008) not only refers to Surrealism but also to Art Brut, yet reveals a personal style, something many of these other artists can only dream of.