Alice Frey: Frieze, No. 9 Cork Street, London

 

For its inaugural exhibition, Vendelmans is proud to present a selection of works by an unsung hero of the Belgian avant-garde: ALICE FREY (1895-1981). The exhibition is the first solo-presentation of the artist’s work outside of continental Europe, and also marks the first exhibition dedicated solely to FREY in the last fifty years. The exhibited works, primarily executed in the 1930s, are illustrative of a particularly intruiging moment in the artist’s career, during which we encounter FREY searching for, and finding a visual language which was entirely her own. The self-portrait of 1936, showing the artist aside her palette and which FREY exhibited at the Venice Biennale of that same year, is exemplary of this stride towards her artistic identity.

 

The figures occupying FREY’s canvases often seem to be floating, lost in thought, living in a world which appears to be recognizable, yet somehow finer than our own. For despite her active involvement in the cultural avant-garde of interwar Antwerp and Brussels, and the abstract, expressionist and dada-ist ideals of her colleagues, FREY’s own practice always remained figurative, romantic and painterly sound. By the lifelong friendship and mentorship she received from artist JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949), as well as her decision to settle in OSTEND after the passing of her husband, art critic GEORGES MARLIER (1898-1968), FREY’s legacy would forever be associated with this coastal city.

 

The accompanying catalogue - the first English publication to be dedicated to FREY - includes written contributions by JENNIFER HIGGIE (author of The Mirror and the Palette), Dr CAROLINE KNIGHTON (author of Modernist Wastes) and MIEKE MELS (curator at Mu.ZEE, Ostend), exploring ideas around self-image, artistic context and painterly development.

 

Click here to listen to the conversation between Dr FLAVIA FRIGERI and artist LIORAH TCHIPROUT, held in conjunction with the exhibition.