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Usine à Gaz

Usine à Gaz © EP 2021

Luxemburg, 1954

Öl auf Leinwand, 75 x 90 cm

signiert (unten rechts)

1954 vom Künstler erworben


Jean-Pierre Thilmany war von Beruf Elektroingenieur, aber im Herzen Maler. Der Luxemburger Künstler hatte eine große Leidenschaft für seine Region und widmete einen beachtlichen Teil seines Werks der nördlichen Region des Großherzogtums. Sein Sujet stellt die selbstständigen, funktionstüchtigen Überreste von Industrieanlagen wie Fabriken und andere Orte dar. Diese Tendenz spiegelt das wachsende Interesse an der systematischen Dokumentation von Fertigungsstätten wider, das Bernd und Hilla Becher in den 1960er- und 1970er-Jahren in den Vordergrund der zeitgenössischen Fotografie stellten. Thilmanys Herangehensweise ist vergleichbar, wenngleich die methodische Distanz noch nicht so offensichtlich ist, und ein latentes Gefühl von Romantizismus immer noch durchscheint. Die Fabrik ragt über die benachbarten Wohngebäude hinaus und erzeugt eine visuelle Abhängigkeit, mit der die soziale Realität solcher Regionen widergespiegelt wird. Obwohl sich das Gaswerk (Usine à gaz) am Horizont auflöst, ist es das unausweichliche Sujet dieses Werks und bestimmt die Perspektive des Bilds und somit den Blick des Betrachters.
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Usine à Gaz

Jean-Pierre THILMANY

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  • 1950

    Schuman Declaration

    French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposes a plan to transform Europe through a step-by-step process with the aim to make a future war in Europe impossible and lead to the unification of the continent.


    The Union shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore.

    (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Title XIII, Article 167)

  • 1952

    Treaty of Paris

    The Treaty of Paris establishes the European Coal and Steel Community, which aims to build a common market for coal and steel in order to prevent future conflicts over these valuable resources.

    The ECSC is a precursor of later European organisations.
    The founding members of the Community are Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.
    A Common assembly of “the people’s representatives” is established under the treaty.

  • 1954

    Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union. Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen.

    (Treaty of the European Union, Title II Article 8A.3)

  • 1956

    Hungarian uprising

    An uprising in Hungary in late October against the country’s Communist government prompts an invasion of Soviet forces that suppresses all opposition to Communist rule.

  • 1957

    Treaty of Rome

    The Treaty of Rome establishes a European Economic Community with the aim of building a customs union among member states, and a European Atomic Energy Community to promote cooperation in the nuclear field.

  • 1958

    European Parliamentary assembly

    The first meeting of the common assembly of the three European communities is held in Strasbourg, France. Members are not organised in national delegations but along political lines. Robert Schuman becomes the first president of the institution known as the European Parliamentary Assembly.

  • 1961

    The Berlin Wall

    The Berlin Wall is built. Over the years it becomes a symbol of separation of the Soviet-dominated eastern bloc from the rest of the continent.

  • 1962

    European Parliamentary assembly became European Parliament

    The parliamentary assembly starts calling itself the European Parliament, a name only officially sanctioned in 1987.

  • 1963

    Yaoundé Convention

    The EU signs its first big international agreement (The Yaoundé Convention), a deal to help 18 former African colonies. By 2005, it has a special partnership with 78 countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions. The EU is the world’s biggest provider of development assistance to poorer countries. Its aid is linked to the respect of human rights.