Floris Jespers

Floris Jespers (1889–1965) was a Belgian artist, known for building Cubism, Fauvism, Futurism, and German expressionism, and an interest in both Kandinsky and Van Gogh into a style of his own in paintings, graphic art, painted glass (verre églomisé), frescoes, tapestry design and his colorful late work, influenced by his travels to the Belgian Congo. As Jespers described his process in 1959:I had discovered with the Cubists that a painting must be built. Expressionism then taught me that light and air around an object were not enough. The object itself has essential values: shape, length, width, depth. Thus expression ... had to be given to the naturalistic form of the object.The creator of one of the first Modernist groups in Belgium, he was at the center of avant-garde circles, as a member of De Branding and Kunst van Heden. Alongside Constant Permeke, Frits van den Berghe, and Gustave de Smet, he exhibited at influential galleries like Sélection and Le Centaure, while also serving as the "House Illustrator of the Flemish Avant-Garde," publishing graphic art in periodicals like Ça Ira, Ruimte, and Variétés, which featured experiments in Dada, poetry, and various manifestos. Collectively, these experiments helped create and develop what later came to be known as Flemish Expressionism.