Joseph Lacasse

The beginnings of Abstract Art and the debate thereof have long been replaced by the question of the real value of contemporary art in the light of the power of the media. Accordingly, it remains astonishing that, beyond the limits of selected museums and groups of connoisseurs, the painter Joseph Lacasse continues to be denied the right to be recognized as a pioneer of Abstraction.....

.....Looking back with Lacasse's individuality and all counter-movements in mind, it should at present be possible to grant Lacasse the position he deserves. No artist is indeed free of influences, but it is only the way influences are handled which makes an artist individual and unique. As such, Lacasse was one of the first, if not the first in Belgium and abroad, to literally conceive a different point of view.
From deep inside, Lacasse communicated energy and harmony, through line and form freed from their descriptive functions. His intuitive formal vocabulary shows that colour and form can generate meaning without representing the natural world. 
Lacasse was wilful but naturally introvert, which lead him to the practice of sublimation of the visible, a clear guide to the ecstasy Lacasse sensed during the creative process. 

Willy Van den Bussche and An Jo Fermon

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