BRUSSELS.- From September 8th to October 8th, 2016, Rodolphe Janssen presents Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel and Fred Bervoets: works on paper from the Stéphane Janssen collection.

In 1966, Stéphane Janssen opened his first gallery in Brussels, on the avenue Louise. For 10 years, he organizes numerous exhibitions dedicated amongst others, to the artists Pierre Alechinsky, Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Bram van Velde, Fred Bervoets, Roger-Edgar Gillet, Reinhoud, César and Oscar Domínguez. In 1976, Stéphane settles in the United States and closes his gallery definitely, to devote himself to his collection.

Sharing his father’s passion, Rodolphe Janssen opened his own gallery, on rue de Livourne in 1991.

This year, to celebrate the 25 years of Rodolphe’s gallery as well as the 50th anniversary of the opening of Stéphane’s, father and son wanted to organize an exhibition side by side, telling a family story, a shared passion for contemporary art, a tradition of art dealership spanning over half a century and two parallel paths, even though quite different.

The exhibition presents a selection of works on paper from the 50’s to 70’s, of artists from Stéphane’s former gallery. Following a renewed interest from the contemporary art world for the CoBrA movement, Rodolphe found it important to highlight the major role played by his father in the 60’s in the promotion of CoBrA and his support to those who have pursued the adventure to this day.

Indeed, today, the CoBrA movement benefits from a huge surge of interest in the United States and Europe. Major contemporary artists, such as Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Martin, Eddie Martinez, Bjarne Melgaard and Julian Schnabel, do not hide their filiation with the CoBrA artists over the last decades. Concurrently, internationally renowned galleries are now paying attention to the movement, with the estates of Karel Appel and Asger Jorn being represented by respectively Blum & Poe in Los Angeles and Petzel in New York. Moreover, institutions are dedicating solo shows to CoBrA artists, such as the Karel Appel retrospective at Centre Pompidou (2015).