Justus Bruns Blog - How an art teacher influences your life

How an art teacher influences your life

In my secondary school, Sint-Michielscollege [Lovely site btw ;)] in Schoten (Antwerp, Belgium) we had a class called “Esthetica” (Aesthetics) given by a man named Vincent Geyskens. He was a slender young man with black combed hair and a straight nose which held his thin glasses. He usually wore a blue vest with a polo-neck. Besides teaching, he made art which he also exposed in galleries in New York City. He never mentioned that, probably because he did not want mix teaching with his own work. His colleague teachers did, they discovered his work in the national newspapers, and were surprised Geyskens never told them.

My class in 2004-2005, search me

Mr Geyskens would sometimes jump on his desk to grab our attention and amaze us with another new cultural subject. When he started talking about the culture in the twenties he wrote with big chalk letters: “VERSPLINTERING” (FRAGMENTATION) and aggressively drew all stripes around the letters scattered on the blackboard. He explained us how mankind lost faith after World War I and how man didn’t care anymore about living strictly by the rules, since it the war showed that rules made them beasts.

Royal Palms Beach Club 5 by Vincent Geyskens

He almost blew the speakers with “Le Scare du Printemps” (Rite of the spring) of Igor Stravinsky. He narrated how the elite in Paris would throw chairs to the stage so Stravinsky had to flee through the toilet room. He mentioned that Claude Debussy (another composer) was the only one that enjoyed the music and hailed him as new great composer. During the performance Debussy was looking how the ballet dancers were running away from the crowds on a stage designed by Pablo Picasso. Years later Stravinsky became a legend.

Mr Geyskens gave us an insight in “Die Dreigroßenoper” (The Three Penny opera) in Berlin of Bertold Brecht and its satirical songs (e.g. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer). He showed us what the relationship was between bad economy and Romantic paintings. And would explain us in detail Wagners Die Walküre, The Valkyries, Hitler’s favorite song.