How can dance and music set visual art in motion? In his early work, Jos Léonard draws on an intuitive form of simultaneity that played such an important role in Italian Futurism.

He experiments with ways of capturing ‘impressions’ and ‘moods’. Or the ‘fantasies’ that arise when listening to music. In his most thoroughly futuristic compositions, he even seeks to balance sound waves with an abstracted landscape.

The noise and chaos created are all part of what he calls, in a smaller drawing, the ‘demokratism-dienamism’ of modern life. The world is set in motion for everyone. It is up to modern man to find a place in the resulting tumult.

Perhaps this dynamism even offers the possibility of collectivity evolving into true democracy …

Jos Léonard, Stil-life influenced by music, 12 April 1919, Indian ink with pen, 17,9 x 25 cm. Museum Plantin-Moretus (collection Prentenkabinet), Antwerp – UNESCO World Heritage
Jos Léonard, Orchestra impression I – predominant sound, 26 March 1919, Indian ink with pen, 17,9 x 25 cm. Museum Plantin-Moretus (collection Prentenkabinet), Antwerp – UNESCO World Heritage
Jos Léonard, Landscape with echo, 28 July 1918, Indian ink and aquarel, 74 x Museum Plantin-Moretus (collection Prentenkabinet), Antwerp – UNESCO World Heritage

<< Jos Léonard, The Democratic-dynamism of Thalia-ball, 12 April 1919, Indian ink with pen, 17,9 x 25 cm. Museum Plantin-Moretus (collection Prentenkabinet), Antwerp – UNESCO World Heritage