Representing Belgian Arts through print media at world’s fairs Antwerpen 1930 and Bruxelles 1935

The 1930s witnessed multiple representations of Belgian art amidst controversies – in daily newspapers and specialized magazines, pitting for example the "Fauves" against the "Pompiers" (Devillez 2002, Nahon 2010) –, Belgium’s centennial celebrations, and world’s fairs. Through the extensive media coverage of Antwerpen 1930 and Bruxelles 1935, illustrated general weeklies provide avenues for exploring how these discourses were assimilated, serialized and (potentially) popularized by mass-market culture in connection with the “return to order” (Laude 1975, Lantenois 1995). The promotion of arts was an integral part of these manifestations, and varied significantly and visually according to the pavilion or the art-historical retrospective. My communication will aim to highlight these visual contrasts, as well as the hierarchization associated with them ("ancient" vs "modern", "fine arts" vs "applied arts"). To this end, I will draw on sources digitized as part of the Artpresse project (available on digital platform BelgicaPeriodicals) with material from the Royal Library of Belgium and the State Archives which hold invaluable exhibition documentation (books, catalogs, leaflets, photos), in order to situate the discourses on art within a broader media system. By conducting visual comparisons, Antwerpen 1930 and Bruxelles 1935 also offer an opportunity to scrutinize the formal evolution of magazines during a pivotal period in the production of illustrated periodicals.