Jan Fabre ^©  

(1958)

Provenance:

Artist's Studio;

Gallery Kluser, Munich;

here acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibitions:
Tribute to Hieronymus Bosch in Congo, MAM, Salzburg (Austria), from July 18th 2012 to September 8th 2012;

Tribute to Hieronymus Bosch in Congo Galerie Klüser, Munich (Germany), from November 8th 2012 to February 23rd 2013;

Jan Fabre. Illuminations , Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (France), from November 9th 2013 to February 10th 2014, illustrated in the catalog of the exhibition p. 100;

Rops/Fabre, Félicien Rops Museum, Namur (Belgium), from March 14th to August 30th, 2015, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 100

Literature:

Jan Fabre. Illuminations, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, p. 100

Rops/Fabre, Félicien Rops Museum, Namur, p. 100

Blindarte kindly thanks Joanna De Vos del Angelos bv/Jan Fabre Studio, Antwerp, for confirming by email the authenticity of the artwork and for help in compiling this sheet

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Jan Fabre (Antwerp, 1958) is one of the most innovative and eclectic contemporary artists. Choreographer, director, scenographer, but also author of sculptures, drawings, films, installations and radical performances has produced since the seventies works that have made him famous all over the world, giving form and truth to his obsessions with a sense of discipline and perfection unparalleled. Visual artist, theatrical artist and author, he uses his works to speculate in a noisy and tangible way on life and death, physical and social transformations, as well as on the cruel and intelligent imagination that is present in both animals and humans.

"Cross with snake II" is a powerful and beautiful work of 2012 that the artist has created through the use of iridescent jewel beetle wings applied on board to form a three-dimensional cross to which he then wrapped an embalmed snake. The work, which lends itself to an all-round vision, is a perfect example of the themes most dear to the artist. Through his compositional combinations of symbols of vanity and fidelity, Fabre describes his vision of the transience of earthly life in a very penetrating way: man must engage in ideals that transcend the temporal, such as Beauty. Everything else is irrelevant. But the serpent on the cross is also an ancient Christian symbol that has its roots in Biblical Moses. In fact, the serpent is not only a symbol of evil or the devil associated with the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Earthly Paradise, but it also contains other important and positive meanings linked to the healing interceded by God through Moses to the Jewish people while fleeing from Egypt to the Promised Land.