Flowers over the city (Fleurs sur la ville)

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: private collection.

In the paintings of Fritz van den Berge of this period, chaos intensifies, and the psychological complexity of the plan is aggravated. The originality of his surrealism lies in the choice of the genre of floral still life. In this work, the viewer first sees a kind of bouquet but, having looked at the colourful and lush vegetation more carefully, he notices different stages of transformation and the fact that there are cut but lively thick branches instead of a vase. It seems that the flowers filling the canvas are still growing and developing. In the painting, Berghe wanted to depict borders between the visual and irrational worlds, life and death. Behind the flowers and the white curtain are an empty sky and a lifeless city.