LACASSE, JOSEPH (Belgian, 1894-1975)

Lacasse must be considered as one of the most individual abstract painters of the École de Paris.
When in 1912 Kandinsky published a manifesto about abstract art, he did not know that his theories had already been put into practice by the Belgian teenager Joseph Lacasse. The visionary Lacasse made his first abstract drawing at the age of twelve, and by 1910 was painting abstract oils. Whereas Kandinsky reached abstraction through a solid intellectual preparation, Lacasse found himself on the same road through pure intuition. His abstract pastels, dated 1910, were painted after a day of hard work at the local Tournai quarry, where the austere structure of the quarry fired his imagination. These early pastels are completely geometrical, though not symmetrical, and their aggressive shapes are softened by rounded lines. They are dominated by a powerful black construction, traced with great surety.
When in 1912, Lacasse entered the École des Beaux-Arts of Tournai, he forced himself to bring his ‘construction’ to academism. At home, on the contrary, he painted cubist works, but of a Cubism all his own, which he called ‘constructive’. His constructive cubist portraits of that time give the impression of being cut of stone. Some of his constructive cubist paintings hint at futurism, as illustrated in Cyclists, dated 1912-13.
In 1921 Lacasse went to Italy, where he painted his ‘motherhood’ series, religious works and workers - always in a style of emphasized realism.
In 1925, he arrived in Paris to stay for good. Here, his acquaintance with Robert Delaunay was crucial to his colouristic development.
During the 1930s Lacasse moved towards ‘Tachism’ and again proved to be a precursor. In 1937, he invented an aesthetic theory of the abstract that events only allowed him to apply from 1948 and in which the lyricism of medium and colour impresses first of all by its power.
What characterizes the work of Lacasse is the intense, continuous vibration communicated to the colour, which runs over the surface, a sensitivity which has become matter through the miracle of plastic creation at last made visible.

Public collections include:
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
Musée d’Art, Tournai
Musée d’Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Musée d’Histoire de l’Art, Luxembourg
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Museum, Djakarta