Page 29 - Studio International - May 1973

saucer stands a cactus in a flowerpot, which in beyond the complexity of style alone. It is (Opposite page)
any other context would appear as a purely also purely visual: as Lucassen's own colour for Alphonse Freymuth
In a sentimental mood 1973
abstract form. Remains the window, with a view instance, which in this portrait reconciles the Acrylic on canvas 175 x 160 cm
of Switzerland, the illusionism of which seems three different palettes (in the lower right-hand Collection the artist
unambiguous. Is it really ? Lucassen had never corner they are explicitly juxtaposed: the (Below)
set eyes on the Alps when he painted it. The cactus and its pot, the head and A.F.'s suit, Alphonse Freymuth
ARUM 5972
landscape is realistic in the same way as a A.F.'s tie). It is also contained in the diversity Acrylic on canvas 575 X 200 cm
railway poster or calendar picture about of plastic indications and treatment of paint. Collection the artist
Switzerland is realistic, but it is not Switzerland. And, of course, it is there in the impossible
Still, for Dutchmen like Lucassen and composition which, miraculously, brings all
Freymuth, Switzerland exists mainly as it is these contrasts together in one whole.
presented in calendar art: that's why it is the The origin of the realistic form of Alphonse
calendar image that is represented here as a real Freymuth is obvious : his masters were Lucassen
landscape. The visual form of the painting and Raveel. But what gives Freymuth's work
reveals how Lucassen takes his stylistic elements an identity of its own, however, is an artistic
from just about everywhere. He does not turn mentality that differs completely from that of
only to official art, but also to children's book Lucassen and Raveel. Freymuth proceeds in a
illustrations, the academic art of today and of a more expressionist manner; he improvises as he
century ago, kitsch, comics, and so on. He often paints, and continually makes the oppositions
attaches to his example a visual comment in clash. It is because of this that, with Lucassen
another style: in Portrait of A.F. the stylistic and Raveel as his starting-point, he took a
interpretations add to the complexity of his own difficult path. The complexity of his and their
idiom within the series to which the portrait idioms demands artistic perfection: Freymuth's
belongs. For the complexity goes far expressionist directness rejects such perfection.

211