Danger, Bend!

Author: Saskia van Kampen-Prein

The emphasis in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s Surrealism collection lies on what curator Renilde Hammacher-Van den Brande once described as the ‘historic’ Surrealists; the group surrounding André Breton. The Dutch Surrealists are represented, it is true, with works by such artists as Piet Ouborg, J.H. Moesman and Wout van Heusden, but with less of an intention to collect a complete overview of these artists.^[1] The Dutch Surrealists became aware of the – for the most part Parisian – movement through the artist Willem Wagenaar, who owned Nord, an art and bookshop at 12 Vinkenburgstraat in Utrecht (1928-34), where he sold foreign Surrealist magazines. In 1931 he opened Kunstzaal Wagenaar at 25 Nieuwegracht and staged high-profile exhibitions there.^[2]
           
Van Leusden initially worked in a constructivist style and exhibited at De Stijl exhibitions in Paris in 1923 and 1924. Influenced by Wagenaar and Moesman, some of the young artists he gave drawing lessons to, he became intrigued by Surrealism in the early 1930s. It brought about a radical change in his work. As Hans Redeker remarked in 1975, Van Leusden only came into contact with Surrealism when it had become distanced from Dada and écriture automatique – when the surrealism of the ‘painted dream symbolism à la Dalí’ attracted him.^[3] Van Leusden initially incorporated the influence that Surrealism had on him in his graphic work, and only later in his paintings.
           
The painting Gevaarlijk, bocht! in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection is an alienating dream image. A road sign gives warning of a dangerous bend, but instead of a road it refers to an ingeniously curved urinal. Dangerously elongated tigers – favourite animals in Van Leusden’s imagery – make their exit from each side of this green wrought-iron structure. The spectacle is watched by a nude woman at a window. This hint of transience in the form of the disintegrating tigers, in combination with (the promise of) sex and sinfulness was a recurring theme in the oeuvre of the Surrealists and in Van Leusden’s in particular.^[4] The German author Wolfgang Cordan (the pseudonym of Heinz Horn) maintained that Van Leusden was a key figure in Surrealism, who exposed the essence of life – the inner self as opposed to the outward appearance – in his work.^[5] Interestingly, this work was selected from the artist’s estate by the then director of the museum J.C. Ebbinge Wubben.^[6] Aside from this quite late Surrealist painting, the museum also has twenty prints by the artist in its collection.