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Usine à Gaz

Usine à Gaz © EP 2021

Luxemburgo, 1954

Óleo sobre lienzo, 75 x 90 cm

firmado (parte inferior derecha)

Comprado al artista en 1954


Ingeniero eléctrico de profesión, la verdadera vocación de Jean-Pierre Thilmany fue la pintura. El artista luxemburgués era un apasionado de su región y dedicó parte considerable de su obra a la parte septentrional del territorio del Gran Ducado. Su temática gira en torno a los armazones funcionales y autosuficientes de complejos industriales, tales como fábricas y otros emplazamientos. Esta tendencia refleja el creciente interés por la documentación sistemática de edificios industriales que los Becher pondrán a la vanguardia de la fotografía contemporánea en los sesenta y setenta. El enfoque de Thilmany es comparable, aunque el distanciamiento metódico no sea tan evidente y perviva aún un latente espíritu de romanticismo. La fábrica se eleva sobre las viviendas vecinas, creando una dependencia visual que refleja la realidad social de tales regiones. Aunque disipándose en el horizonte, esta central de gas (Usine à gaz) es el sujeto inescapable de esta obra que guía la perspectiva de la imagen y, por tanto, la mirada del espectador.
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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.