Jan Fabre Knight of Despair/Warrior of Beauty

A Flemish master for our modern times, Jan Fabre, has been negotiating the currents and convulsions of the human spirit since he entered the art world more than 35 years ago. His works palpably communicate the physical, the psychological tolls of life and death, as well as the social capacity for cruelty, via performance, painting, and through an instinctive arsenal of materials that toggles between blood and BIC blue ink.

Spectators to this absorbing world will no longer have to see it from the sidelines; coinciding with the staging of a landmark exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, a formidable hardback tome by Rizzoli pays a just tribute to an artist of such stature, managing to capture the most conspicuous corners of his output. Authored by Dmitry Ozerkov, Head of Contemporary Art at the institute, Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair/Warrior of Beauty charts the torrent of light and dark that beleaguers the entire opus of this figure, from young boy – the grandson of entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, who fostered a fascination with the life of insects at an early age – to today, the subject of a 200-piece strong survey on the world’s stage. Including a number of new works created specifically for the exhibition, as well as an extensive exploration of the old, it seems Christmas has come early for Fabre fans.