Self-taught Belgian artist LΓ©on Spilliaert created a personal universe between Symbolism and Expressionism, primarily using graphic techniques: ink, gouache, watercolor, pencils, chalk, and pastel.The Dominoes is an exceptional piece featuring three mysterious characters hidden by their carnival costumes against an indeterminate background.
The triangular, synthetic, and massive shapes of the three figures, which occupy almost the entire sheet, are punctuated by rhythmic touches of white: the gloved fist, the eyes, and the feet of the figure in the background.The subject of the work is closely tied to the Ostend carnival, a tradition that inspired other works by the artist, as well as a series of preparatory drawings for this work.
Like his compatriot James Ensor, Spilliaert was interested in the ambivalence of the mask, both concealing and revealing, playful and tragic. The unsettling strangeness linked to the ambiguity of the masked character, both alive and frozen in their disguise, is imbued here with a provisional lightness.
The game of romantic seduction is not devoid of anxiety: the smiling woman is accompanied by rigid, spectral doubles, and her own smile, frozen and eerie, contrasting with her youthful and rosy flesh, is reminiscent of the skeletons in dances of death.
