Oil painting on canvas, mounted on wood panels (1993)
Joseph Willaert’s work in Clemenceau station is based entirely on illusion. These paintings give the metro passenger the impression that he or she is not underground, but in a virgin Arcadian landscape, in which all the typical elements are literally aligned. The images glide in front of the metro carriages, like a Cinerama that provokes nostalgia in the older passengers and curiosity in the youngest. Using simple imagery, the artist refers to our urban consumer society, in which two generations no longer share the same values.
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JOSEPH WILLAERT (1936 – 2014)
This self-taught pop-art painter has resolutely abandoned the easel. His works are simple and almost naïve. In each case they consist of a neat, linear drawing with a bright and pure use of colour (in which white plays an essential role). You could almost say that he creates his works with stencils. He attempts, using a simple, plastic language, to put the finger on the wound of our urban consumer society, in which the younger generation takes technological advances for granted, and is barely aware of a rural past which lay only two generations previously. Poetry and humour are at the heart of Willaert’s works. Titles play a very important role for him.
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