24 May 13 by Jan Theuninck
Yperite
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This painting depicts the terror, caused by chemical warfare and the thousands of deaths on the battlefields
https://www.vredesmuseum.nl/galerie/wargasm.php
Login to comment
This painting depicts the terror, caused by chemical warfare and the thousands of deaths on the battlefields
https://www.vredesmuseum.nl/galerie/wargasm.php
Zyklon B
West meets East
Following the G20 Summit Conference in Seoul, Korea the G20 World Artist Festival is held with participations of artists from G20 member countries at the Art Hall of the Korea Press Center from November 8 through November 14.
Belgium as President of the Council of the European Union is represented by Jan Theuninck with his painting West meets East. With this cultural event
Le Lac
Abstract impression of the wall of Villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier (Route de Lavaux 21, CH-1802 Corseaux, Vevey, Switzerland)
Jan Theuninck painted it after a visit to the villa in July 2017. He met Albert Jeanneret, the brother of Le Corbusier, who lived in the villa until 1973, in the village of Finhaut around 1970. Albert Jeanneret was a musician, composer and violinist. He helped developing the Dalcroze Method in Hellerau, Germany. The Dalcroze Method is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodály Method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music to students. When Theuninck met him, he was experimenting with sound recordings of daily life noises which he called
Dein Kampf
Stalag Zehn B
the feldwebel became a general
the campdoctor , a professor
and we the jews - it’s banal
we stayed jewish - no error
© by Jan Theuninck
Red River
Red River
the train was too late
by foot it was too far
the river too nearby
the hatred too strong
bullets through your head
river of blood
red Danube
dead Budapest
© by Jan Theuninck
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[LINK]
Wargasm
wargasm” is a slang term blending “war” and “orgasm,” often used to describe an intense, almost euphoric excitement about warfare or destruction, sometimes linked to militaristic or aggressive psychological states.
This 2001 painting is a cornerstone of his oeuvre, symbolizing the perverse, orgasmic thrill derived from war's destruction—a "wargasm" as euphoric violence, it critiques the eroticized spectacle of conflict in media and politics.
"wargasm" as a lens to psychoanalyze humanity's self-destructive impulses
Theuninck's oeuvre implicitly engages psychoanalytic ideas, portraying war's traumatic imprint on the collective psyche—echoing Freud's Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses (1919), which examined soldiers' traumas as repressed conflicts surfacing in neuroses. Theuninck extends this to modern "totalitarian preparations," where societal disconnection fosters authoritarianism.
Theuninck's art and writing frequently address the futility of conflict and the pursuit of nonviolence. His pieces reflect on World War I (given his West Flanders birthplace near key battlefields) and contemporary "new colonialism" through migration and global power dynamics. Jan Theuninck (born June 7, 1954, in Zonnebeke, Belgium) is a Belgian painter and poet whose abstract works often explore themes of war, peace, colonialism, pacifism, the Holocaust, and the psychological undercurrents of societal violence. His style blends minimalism and monochrome expressionism, using stark, evocative forms to critique modern totalitarianism, communitarianism, and the erosion of democratic freedoms. Writing primarily in French (with some English), Theuninck's poetry and essays delve into political disillusionment, drawing on thinkers like Hannah Arendt to warn against surveillance states and lost human connections.
Symbolism in Jan Theuninck's Wargasm (2001): A Psychoanalytic Critique of Euphoric Violence
Jan Theuninck's Wargasm (acrylic on canvas, 70 x 100 cm) is a stark abstract painting that encapsulates his lifelong engagement with the psychological and political dimensions of war. Created in 2001 amid rising global tensions post-9/11, it was first exhibited at the Museum for Peace and Nonviolence in Delft, Netherlands, alongside works like Yperite (2004), which evokes WWI chemical horrors. Theuninck, born in Zonnebeke—near Flanders' blood-soaked WWI battlefields—infuses his monochrome expressionism with pacifist urgency, drawing on Hannah Arendt's warnings about totalitarian isolation and Freudian ideas of repressed trauma. Through Wargasm, he dissects war not as mere conflict but as a perverse, orgasmic release—a "wargasm"—where destruction yields illicit pleasure, critiquing how leaders and societies derive thrill from violence.