Children in the House 1948

Curator: "Children in the House," painted by Corneille in 1948. He was a founding member of the CoBrA movement, a group of artists rebelling against the rationalism in art during that period. The work, realized with acrylic paint, showcases Corneille’s signature blend of abstraction and figuration. Editor: It feels...confused, almost unsettling. There's a darkness pressing in around these geometric shapes. It’s like peering into a memory fragment. Curator: Indeed. What you’re sensing is that very intentional challenge to representation, a pursuit to dismantle formal artistic structure prevalent at that moment. CoBrA artists were all about immediacy and spontaneity—embracing pure expression untainted by academic restraint. So you get this raw, almost childlike freedom. Editor: Childlike is spot on! The title promises one thing—"Children in the House"—but what we see is so far removed from any traditional domestic scene. Are we supposed to see the house itself in these squares and lines? The children? They’re hidden within a network of abstraction! It feels like play...dangerous play. Curator: The Second World War’s influence is inescapable. Corneille and his CoBrA counterparts believed in art as a visceral response. A reaction to trauma, the devastation, to the crushing forces of society—so that sense of fractured innocence is absolutely part of what the artist is trying to convey. Look at how the color—or absence of color—functions. Dark and somber...only bits of blues and reds popping to life like tiny embers. Editor: You’re right, those bright colours aren't joyful at all—more like warning signs! I'm left pondering on it for quite a while now and considering that Corneille presents us with an exploded diagram of what "home" or "family" might signify, ripped apart and reassembled...wrongly? Curator: That's very acute, because through the work's deceptive simplicity it challenges us to unlearn fixed interpretations and connect with more intuitive and less conventional perception. Editor: Well, it definitely succeeded in unsettling me and making me think! Curator: It's a reaction he would have gladly welcomed.