The Simon Collection, housed in London and France, is the finest assemblage of modern Belgian art outside Belgium. Accompanying an exhibition held at Boston College’s McMullen Museum,A New Keypresents fifty-three works never before displayed in North America, including important paintings by René Magritte, James Ensor, Frits van den Berge, Paul Delvaux, and others.
Full-color reproductions of the paintings are accompanied by seven essays that illuminate their significance and the distinctive contribution of Belgian art to the development of modernism. Addressing themes like the rise of Freudian psychology, the influence of carnival, and the trauma of two world wars,A New Keyforges a new understanding of Belgium’s long-neglected role in the development of modern art.
Jeffery W. Howeis professor of fine arts at Boston College. He is the author of many books, includingHouses of WorshipandThe Symbolist Art of Fernand Khnopff.
Director's Foreword
Nancy Netzer
Preface and Historical Outline
Jeffery Howe
Pauvre Belgique: Collecting Practices and Belgian Art in and Outside of Belgium
Sura Levine
The Simon Collection - a Personal Perspective
Patrick Derom
A New Key: Modernism and National Identity in Belgian Art
Jeffery Howe
Ensor's Parrot
Katherine Nahum
Laughter Liberates Us from Fear - The Place of Carnival in Our Lives
SusanA. Michalczyk
Occupied Belgium: The Art of War
John J. Michalczyk
Freudian Themes in the Symbolist Work of George Minne
Claude ls
![A New Key: Modern Belgian Art from the Simon Collection [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/8/0/6/2_5168406.jpg "A New Key: Modern Belgian Art from the Simon Collection [Paperback]")