The uncanny and the real

Urbanus

Kees van Willigen · 1915–1990

Date

1980

Medium

Oil painting

Size

50 x 61 cm

Urbanus is a character who urbanises: he has in mind a puzzle of preconceived dwellings that turn into globes pierced with uniform windows, as if to flatten him. Kees van Willigen took an interest in construction and town planning and spoke of the “villafication” of France, in reference to housing estates.

Twenty years after leaving cubism, the painting does not mark a return to it: Urbanus is a character in a game of forms, which is also an opportunity to work with unusual colours.