When Flemish Nationalism, Progressivism, and Avant-Gardism came together: 1917-1922

This paper examines the convergence of Flemish nationalism, social progressivism, and the artistic avant-garde in Antwerp between 1917 and 1922. While abstract and constructivist tendencies emerged across Europe during the early twentieth century, in Belgium they became closely intertwined with Flemish activism after the Great War. Through figures such as Herman Vos and Eugeen De Bock, these artistic experiments became embedded in wartime Flemish activism. In the journal Ruimte (1920), Vos introduced the concept of gemeenschapskunst (community art), framing art as an ethical and collective practice aligned with both social reform and national emancipation. At the same time, Paul van Ostaijen and Jozef Peeters connected anti-bourgeois aesthetics to broader socialist and internationalist networks, situating Flemish activism within a transnational avant-garde discourse. Reconsidering Ruimte as a central rather than marginal platform, this paper argues that early Belgian abstraction functioned not merely as formal rupture, but as part of a coherent communal and ideological project redefining the social role of art after 1918.