Edition: 20

Edition: 45 [25 & XX]

This huge painting "Barricade" [372 × 300 cm] was made in 1949 for the exhibition International Exhibition of Experimental Art' at Stedelik Museum Amsterdam.

Materials for this and other works by fellow Cobra artists, were provided by the museum, as the artists couldn't afford them. Due to its large size and since Constant was unable to pay back the 100 guilders he was due for the materials, the painting stayed at the museum.

In 1963, Constant sees 'Barricade' reproduced in an exhibition catalogue as being 'on loan' from the Stedelijk. Constant is taken aback. He's under the assumption that the work was on loan to the Stedelik as collateral for the 100 guilders. He raises the issue with the then current director, Edy de Wilde, who writes him that he has consulted with Sandberg and Appel, who confirm that the museum would provide the, at the time, precious materials in exchange for the produced work. As a side note he mentions that Constant seems to be the only painter who has raised this issue after 14 years.

Now slightly agitated, Constant replies that the fact that De Wilde seems to choose to believe the opinion of Appel and Sandberg over his does not constitute proof of the donation of the work. He also points out that Eugene Brands has raised the same issue. In 1963 Constant files a lawsuit against the municipality of Amsterdam.

In 1969, the municipality's defense is dismissed. The judge finds no proof that an arrangement for donation of the painting had been made with the artist and Constant wins the case. Eventually, Constant pays back the 100 guilders and donates Barricade [1949] to the Stedelik Museum Amsterdam, where the painting remains to this day.

Painted on his birthday July 21st, 1949, this painting captures the heartache Constant experiences after his wife Matie has left him for his friend and colleague Asger Jorn, taking his two daughters Martha and Olga with her.

This work was painted in Amsterdam and its original title was ‘A Nous la Liberté'. In a letter to the curator of the Tate Modern, dated 6 February 1988 Constant recalled the ‘general mood' from which the painting emerged and explained why the title was later changed:

After the five years of the German Occupation, during which hardly any work of other painters was to be seen, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam organised a large show of contemporary Dutch art, entitled ‘Kunst in vryheid' (Art in freedom). This exhibition was a deception by the lack of any creative freedom - the worst kind of academicism. Shortly after (in 1946) I met Asger Jorn in Paris, who appeared to be a related mind. Our friendship would lead, 2 years later, to the foundation of Cobra. The title of this painting was originally ‘A Nous la Liberté' opposing the false ‘freedom' of the above mentioned exhibition (and what followed after). A few years later, Cobra had fallen apart and many of its former members were classified in museums as ‘experimentals', forming a new ‘style' contradictory to the real aims of the movement - My disappointment about this development led me to change the title to ‘Après Nous la Liberté'. I changed the title to express my doubts about the possibility of ‘free art' in an unfree society, and, at the same time, my hopes for the freedom all men are longing for. *
 

*https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constant-after-us-liberty-t03705

The Roman numbering was not given by Constant but serves to distinguish between different works with the same name.

A drawing on a page from one of the note books of his wife at the time. She was studying ancient languages.

Edition: 20