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Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part II

This article is the second part of a three-part study of Belgian art nouveau as “imperial modernism,” created from Congo raw materials and inspired by Congo motifs. While Part I explored the lash, the vine, and the elephantine, Part II examines Henry van de Velde’s theory and design of modern ornament, finding as one of his sources the African body arts of scarification known as tatouage. In the 1890s, when Henry van de Velde was preoccupied with defining a new language of ornament, a discourse of tatouage circulated in Belgium, which emphasized body scarification as a complex and living art form with a coherent set of styles and functions. The Congolese practice of repeated cuts in the flesh to create raised, abstract patterns corresponded closely to Van de Velde’s emerging conception of structural ornament. Scarification provided a central resource in his design repertoire for modernism; emulating the native artists he explicitly admired, Van de Velde fused material and surface in his ceramics, furniture, and women’s clothing. The final part of this study, to be published in the next issue of this magazine, will focus on the history, visual culture, and ongoing renovation of the Royal Museum for Central Africa and highlight new research on expressive forms of violence, past and present, within Belgium and outside it.