M HKA Ensembles

Drawing

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.

Drawing consistently serves as the basis or point of departure for Enrico David. The complex interaction between different graphic traditions – corporate logo design, the clear line giving a glad-eye wink to comics (Belgian!) and the folkloric arts & crafts idiom – also provides the framework for the specially conceived façade painting to mark the re-opening of a drastically refurbished M HKA in 2009. This monumental drawing is comprised of ten identical figures, refined to a pure play of lines, looking skywards; for six of these figures, indifferent as to gender, the face’s profile melds with a near-perfect yellow sphere (David loves hybrids) that seems to evoke both sun and moon. In other words, this work fits perfectly within David’s oeuvre, in which references to rather ironic, nostalgia-veiled allusions of ‘alternative’ symbolism (suns, music, harlequins, dance) abound. But whether this work worships the newly risen sun above the M HKA or not, is of secondary importance: first and foremost, Enrico David conceived a tight, minimalist package for the museum in the best tradition of Antwerp understatement. His mural girdles the three sides of the building, and the musical and/or choreographical undertone of this ambitious new work literally lends stature to the clear, straightforward image that the new M HKA wishes to convey.