Ko Goubert

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Kunstwetenschappen en Archeologie, Graduate Student

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Researcher and exhibition curator with a passion for Belgian silver design and decorative arts from the interwar period to the 1960s. Currently working in M - Museum Leuven's Collection department and preparing a PhD in Art History at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. PhD topic: the artistic work of international designer and silversmith Dom Martin Martin OSB (1889-1965), from Art Deco to fifties design, in a comparative, European perspective and in the context of the Benedictine efforts to modernise Catholic liturgy in the interwar society.
Phone: +32 (0)16 27 29 47
Address: M - Museum Leuven, Registrar Collections, Professor Van Overstraetenplein 1, B-3000 Leuven

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Papers by Ko Goubert

Dom Martin: the Art Deco Jewels of a Benedictine Designer

Jewellery History Today, 2019

Feature article published in the Autumn 2019 issue (36) of Jewellery History Today (offprint cour... more Feature article published in the Autumn 2019 issue (36) of Jewellery History Today (offprint courtesy of the Society of Jewellery Historians).
Dom Martin Martin OSB (1889–1965) of Mont César Abbey in Leuven, Belgium, was among the foremost European designers of modern church silver and interiors in the 1920s–1940s. An artist in the service of God, he strove to create a suitable and visually stimulating setting for the contemporary community-oriented Roman Catholic liturgy. His calling card was an opulent and colourful aesthetic, combining calculated geometry with the most precious of materials. An unexplored aspect of Dom Martin’s work are his designs (ca. 1924-1938) for ecclesiastical jewellery
and regalia. This paper offers a first introduction, focussing on design aspects and client profiles.

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Leuvens zilver voor de twintigste eeuw. Op zoek naar Dom Martin en Jean Ausloos [Leuven Silver for the Twentieth Century. In Search of Dom Martin and Jean Ausloos.]

Zilver: kunst, object, verhalen uit Leuven, Feb 11, 2015

The splendid art deco oeuvre created in the 1920s and 30s by monk and silversmith dom Martin is s... more The splendid art deco oeuvre created in the 1920s and 30s by monk and silversmith dom Martin is still a rather too-well-kept Leuven secret, even though his creations, executed in the most luxurious materials in cooperation with the famous firm Wolfers Frères and laquerwork artist Marcel Wolfers, were very much to international taste at the time. Until recently we knew of only about twenty realized designs. Detective work, which started with the original design sketches and archive photographs in Keizersberg Abbey in Leuven and the Silver Museum of the Province of Antwerp, brought to light magnificent new examples of his work and additional information about the artist’s clientele. Dom Martin received orders from members of the Belgian and French aristocracy, churches, monasteries and abbeys in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, even from as far afield as the United States of America and Brazil. On the other hand, the radical stylistic evolution of Jean Ausloos could be said to reflect the trends in Belgian silver design of the fifties and sixties. Whereas he initially fell in with the art-deco tradition, in the 1960s he came up with streamlined designs in which he played with contrasts in colour and texture. Ausloos’ clientele included a large number of young trainee seminarians and missionaries, who appreciated his individual, bespoke work. The work of both silversmiths illustrates the waves of innovation in ecclesiastical art between the world wars and after the Second Vatican Council. In terms of production, we are now aware of an interesting antithesis between Martin’s one-off pieces produced in an industrial way and Ausloos’ articles made by hand almost in series. As well as Martin and Ausloos, who are approached as representative of and as a case study for twentieth-century (Leuven) silver design, other smaller firms and independent silversmiths were active in Leuven. In conclusion, silverware produced in Leuven in the twentieth century – and the same applies to Belgium as a whole! – clearly requires further research. So the investigative work carried out for this exhibition should also serve as a springboard and incentive to take a close look at the fascinating work of designers and silversmiths in the last century. Published in: K. Goubert (ed.), Zilver: kunst, object, verhalen uit Leuven, exh.cat., Leuven (M - Museum Leuven), 2015, ISBN 9789082344707, fully illustrated, Dutch with English summaries.

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Scheppend Ambacht in de provincie Antwerpen: Een kunstambachttentoonstelling in het Antwerps provinciaal paviljoen op de Wereldtentoonstelling Brussel 1958. [SAPA: a Crafts Exhibition in the Antwerp Provincial Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair.]

The whole world was determined to show itself in the best possible light at the 1958 Brussels Wor... more The whole world was determined to show itself in the best possible light at the 1958 Brussels World Fair and, of course, this included the Province of Antwerp. Yet whereas other Belgian provinces chose to promote their tourist attractions, Antwerp tried a rather different approach with a project entitled Scheppend Ambacht in de provincie Antwerpen (Creative Crafts in the province of Antwerp). A stunning exhibition was set up, drawing on the experience of what was then the Sterckshof Decorative Arts and Crafts Museum. More than 150 items were on show, from stained-glass windows and book covers, furniture and ceramics, to silver and tapestries – to name but the most notable categories. The finest of what the region’s artists-craftsmen had to offer was showcased in a modern pavilion, sending out the bold message that Antwerp was a thriving artistic province whose crafts could interact with industrial production and that these, moreover, would not be out of place among similar displays in many an international pavilion at the World Fair. This event inspired the author’s earlier paper Scheppend Ambacht in de provincie Antwerpen: Kunstambachten in het Antwerps provinciaal paviljoen op Expo 58 (CCPA: artistic crafts in the Antwerp provincial pavilion at Expo 58), which this contribution develops further. In the paper, the aptly named House of the Province of Antwerp along with its craft exhibition were carefully reconstructed. Apart from all the World Fair excitement, though, this exhibition was very much a part of a broader ideology dominating the artistic crafts field. A key element in post-war craft thinking was the so-called revival of contemporary crafts, which bloomed remarkably half a century ago. Special governmental organisations and promotional committees were created to support and stimulate this blossoming. Numerous local or even international exhibitions promoted the creative talent of new generations of Belgian artists-craftsmen. It was against this fascinating background that the CCPA exhibition delighted its many visitors. The present article sketches a picture of the Province of Antwerp’s pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair and the colourful palette of artistic and decorative crafts on display in this unique setting. Both are situated in an appropriate cultural historical context, vis-à-vis contemporary architecture and crafts. Thus CCPA is put into context against the wider background of the Belgian craft revival strategy of the fifties and sixties. To conclude this extensive introduction to both location and collection, some selected items from CCPA are re-examined, after their recent comeback in the exhibition Fifties Silver: Belgian silver around 1958 at the Sterckshof Silver Museum. Published in: Gentse Bijdragen tot de Interieurgeschiedenis, vol. 37, Leuven, 2013 [2010–2011]: p. 155–189, ill., Dutch with English abstract.

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Meesterlijk (zilver)design. De Wolfersverzameling [Masters of (Silver) Design. The Wolfers Collection]

This collection inventory presents the first indepth research into the entire Wolfers collection ... more This collection inventory presents the first indepth research into the entire Wolfers collection in Design museum Gent. It encompasses silverware and decorative arts designed by and for both the Wolfers firm and family. Contents: history of the collection; abridged biography of the Wolfers firm; full colour catalogue; exhaustive hallmarks repertory and bibliography.

K. Goubert, Meesterlijk (zilver)design. De Wolfersverzameling, coll.cat., (Cahier; 3), Gent (Designcentrum Vlaanderen), 2012, 134 p., fully illustrated, Dutch

Drafts by Ko Goubert

Een koffieservies égoïste met familiewapen de Lalaing (Wolfers Frères, Brussel, circa 1922-1926)

Beschrijving en contextualisering van een zilveren koffieservies met gegraveerd wapenschild. Op b... more Beschrijving en contextualisering van een zilveren koffieservies met gegraveerd wapenschild. Op basis van het atelierarchief van de firma Wolfers Frères en een heraldisch-genealogische analyse kon het servies tot op vier jaar nauwkeurig worden gedateerd. Een verkorte versie van dit artikel verschijnt in het themanummer (2016) van 'Le Parchemin, Bulletin bimestriel édité par l’Association royale Office Généalogique et Héraldique de Belgique' gewijd aan gearmorieerd edelsmeedwerk.

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Dom Martin: the Art Deco Jewels of a Benedictine Designer

Jewellery History Today, 2019

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Leuvens zilver voor de twintigste eeuw. Op zoek naar Dom Martin en Jean Ausloos [Leuven Silver for the Twentieth Century. In Search of Dom Martin and Jean Ausloos.]

Zilver: kunst, object, verhalen uit Leuven, Feb 11, 2015

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Meesterlijk (zilver)design. De Wolfersverzameling [Masters of (Silver) Design. The Wolfers Collection]

Een koffieservies égoïste met familiewapen de Lalaing (Wolfers Frères, Brussel, circa 1922-1926)

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