Wobbe Alkema, Magazine De Driehoek, collection Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.

At the moment that the final edition of Het Overzicht (1921 - 1925) is made available in February 1925, the founding Director Fernand Berckelaers, alias Michel Seuphor, leaves Antwerp for good. Co-Director and enthusiastic organiser Jozef Peeters immediately ensures for a new beginning: the first number of De Driehoek (Maandschrift voor konstruktivistische Kunst/ Monthly paper for Constructivist Art) rolls off the press already in April 1925.

As is apparent from its caption, De Driehoek wants to purely orientate itself towards Constructivism. With this, it is the first and only publication for Belgium with that goal. Just as with Het Overzicht, De Driehoek is then also a personally financed undertaking. With the new Co-Director Duco Perkens, the pseudonym of Edgar Du Perron, Peeters finds the necessary financial means for this new initiative. Originally Paul Van Ostaijen (1896 - 1928) is also an initiator, but just as previously with Sienjaal, it does not work out for the literary frontman to sign off on it and gradually he breaks away. Yet, he still delivers important contributions, amongst which the poem that has become a classic in Flanders, Marc groet ’s morgens de dingen. It is then also in the literature that De Driehoek excels, especially with the bi-monthly Cahiers van De Driehoek, in which Du Perron publishes, along with Van Ostaijen, Gaston Burssens (1896 - 1965) and Roel Houwink. Via this publisher’s mantel that has the intention of promoting its own colleagues, De Driehoek also publishes five series of postcards by Peeters, Jos Léonard (1892 - 1957), Victor Servranckx, Karel Maes and Maurice Gaspard.

The international contacts from the time of Het Overzicht continue to be productive, specifically with images by Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944), Enrico Prampolini (1894 - 1956), László Moholy Nagy (1895 - 1946) as well as by De Ploeg artist Wobbe Alkema (1900 - 1984). Worthy of note is that the attention goes further than only paintings and graphic art. There is an emphasis on the applied arts, posters and even puppets. Characteristic of De Driehoek is the section of 16 pages from 4 folded sheets of paper lacking a real title page, which gives the whole thing a rather pamphlet-like character. In contrast to Het Overzicht, De Driehoek appears regularly. The 10 numbers, with a double-edition excepted, appear monthly until January 1926. Ultimately, Du Perron shall not continue to support the stark dogmatism of Peeters and pulls the plug on the financial means. Du Perron bears his alter ego of Duco Perkens to the grave and turns his back on Modernism for good.

 

Sergio Servellón

 

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