Rik Brouwers - Latest news

Oil on Canvas
1936
70 by 50 cm

In the late 1920s Rik Brouwers is one of the first to take a vivid historical interest in the rise and fall of the modern isms from the first quarter of the 20th century. His own artistic practice is influenced by Prosper de Troyer. Brouwers conceived this painting as a Trompe l`oeil. The newspaper in the background was reduced to subtitles only suggesting the threatening atmosphere of the mid 1930s. On top of the newspaper: a pile of cash money. Below it all in the lower left corner the artist signed IK. Or if one looks more carefully RIK. The painting thus evokes the individual crushed by the turbulent dynamics of 1930s society.