Felicien Rops: Laboratory of Desires. Este artículo no está disponible.Felicien Rops: Laboratory of Desires

A master of Belgian Symbolism rediscovered! Félicien Rops’s (1833–1898) erotic works remain provocative today – and in the nineteenth century, they transgressed every boundary of art. With a keen eye and a sharp pen, Rops exposed the hypocrisies of the respectable middle class. “I am Rops, and I wish to be no other!” he declared, and adhered to this maxim throughout his life.

The most poisonous berry of Symbolism, a scourge of the bourgeoisie – many terms have been used to describe Rops’s radical art. Celebrated by writers such as Charles Baudelaire and Joris-Karl Huysmans, he was a transgressive figure who deliberately aimed his works against the double standards of bourgeois society. His pictures – representing an absolute highpoint of printmaking and draughtsmanship from the period – invite a critical examination of fin-de-siècle social attitudes, particularly with regard to gender roles.

Jonas Beyer has been curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich since 2018. Daan van Heesch has been director of the graphic collection at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels since 2020.