On 16 June, Professor Debora Silverman discusses the intriguing and multifaceted story behind the ‘Stoclet frieze’, created by Gustav Klimt in a Brussels palace between 1905 and 1911. This lecture is in English.
Practical information
Date and time: 16 June 2024 at 2 pm.
Duration: 45 minutes + 15 minutes questions.
Language: English.
Costs: Free. Museum entrance is € 22.
Location: Auditorium.
Participation: You don't have to sign up for this lecture. You can just walk in.
Gold Rush and Congo Style: Gustav Klimt’s Marble Mosaic Frieze in the Palais Stoclet
Between 1905 and 1911, Gustav Klimt created the extraordinary Stoclet frieze for the dining room of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels. This period partially coincided with the years when Belgium considered itself the colonial ruler of the African country of Congo (1885-1908). Klimt‘s patron, Brussels banker-engineer Adolphe Stoclet, shared in the abundant wealth that flowed toward Belgium because of colonization. This meant that the budget for Klimt‘s frieze was virtually unlimited: it was decorated with jewels, gold and mosaics.
In this lecture, Prof. Debora Silverman explores the myriad connections between the colonized territories in Africa and the Stoclet frieze. In her analysis, Silverman relates the style of the frieze itself (which includes references to Egypt) to Belgian colonialism and the interests of the Brussels elite to which Klimt‘s patron belonged.
Debora Silverman
Debora Silverman is Distinguished Professor Emerita of History and Art History at UCLA, where she holds the University of California Presidential Chair in Modern European History, Art and Culture. She has published widely on the visual arts, politics, and the emergence of the irrational in fin-de-siècle Europe, on Van Gogh, Gauguin, Rodin, Ensor, and Klimt, as well as critical studies of art, memory, museums and Belgian imperialism.
Professor Silverman’s recent publications explore King Leopold II’s architectural theory and practice; the impact of The Congo Free State on Belgian modernism; Art Nouveau’s ‘whiplash style’ as ‘Congo Style’; and the politics of memory of the Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa. Her two books nearing completion are on Belgian Art Nouveau as ‘imperial modernism’, entitled Art of Darkness; and ‘Modernity Without Borders’: Politics, Congo, and the Avant-Garde in King Leopold II’s Belgium.
Other notable publications include Selling Culture: Bloomingdale’s, Diana Vreeland, and the Aristocracy of Taste in Reagan’s America (1989), Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siècle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style (1992) and Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art (2000).