JAN BURSSENS, abstract painting, mixed media on cardboard, mid-20th century

JAN BURSSENS, abstract painting, mid 20th c.

Mixed media: gouache, watercolour, ink including text (to be deciphered), see image.

Signature lower right, writing on the back to be deciphered (see photo).

Work on cartioned paper, unframed.

Biography:

Born in Mechelen on 27 June 1925, Jan Burssens grew up in an intellectual environment: his father, Amaat Burssens, was a professor of African languages at Ghent University, and his uncle, Gaston Burssens, was a well-known poet. Although he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, he is considered to be essentially self-taught. He left the academy in 1946 to follow his own artistic path.

In the 1950s, he was a member of the La Jeune Peinture Belge movement (1951-1954) and co-founder of the Art Abstrait group in 1952. He also took part in documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959, a major event in contemporary art.

Burssens began with expressionist painting influenced by Frits Van den Berghe. From 1947, he moved towards lyrical abstraction, experimenting with materials such as sand and lacquer, and using the dripping technique even before he had discovered the work of Jackson Pollock.

His work was also influenced by the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and the aesthetics of Francis Bacon. Over time, he returned to expressive figuration, often centred on self-portraits and distorted human figures, using rich textures and intense colours.