The KMSKA presents Donas, Archipenko & La Section d’Or. Enchanting Modernism
A special retrospective on Marthe Donas and the international avant-garde of the interwar period.
From 4 October 2025 to 11 January 2026, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) is welcoming visitors to the unique exhibition Donas, Archipenko & La Section d’Or. Enchanting Modernism. A century ago, Belgian artist Marthe Donas carved out a niche for herself at the heart of the diverse and colourful European avant-garde. Today, her pioneering work is being shown in concert with that of Alexander Archipenko and other influential modernists.
Marthe Donas: leading talent of the international avant-garde
Marthe Donas (1885–1967) grew up in an upper middle-class environment where there was little room for artistic ambitions. Nevertheless, she broke free, and emerged as the first internationally acclaimed Belgian female avant-garde artist. Shortly after the First World War, her authentic view of Cubism and her innovative compositions quickly earned her a key role in the international avant-garde.
The exhibition shows Donas as a pivotal figure in a distinctly male avant-garde world. Not only was she a visionary artist, she was also a cultural entrepreneur and networker who organised exhibitions and brought artists together. In this exhibition, we are showing her work alongside that of great names such as Mondrian and Modigliani.
Romance and experiment on the Côte d’Azur
In mid-1917, a lack of funds brings Donas to Nice, where she meets the already well-known sculptor Alexander Archipenko. In their search for artistic renewal, a connection sparks. Together they experiment with innovative ideas: Archipenko in sculptures and ‘sculpto-paintings’, Donas with shaped paintings. A unique cross-pollination between painting and sculpture.
Donas captures the light of the South of France in her work. These are paintings that seem to radiate from within, an energy that you also find in Archipenko.
One of Donas' most striking innovations are her shaped paintings. These are works that follow the contours of the subject and break away from the classic rectangular painting. This experimental approach may have arisen from her collaboration with Archipenko, who also explored the boundaries of form and consciously played with negative space.
Jointly, Donas and Archipenko take the lead in re-establishing La Section d'Or, an influential Cubist group that also includes major names such as Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Natalia Goncharova and Marie Vassilieff. These artists advocated a more inclusive and diverse Cubism. More geometrically abstract variants found a place alongside colourful and more decorative Cubist styles.
Modern dissenting voices: Donas versus Magritte
The interwar period was a time of artistic friction and confrontation. In 1924 Paris saw the birth of Surrealism, a movement that strongly opposed the Cubism of La Section d’Or. Remarkably, the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte began his career within the Cubist tradition.
An early Cubo-Futurist work by Magritte is on display in Enchanting Modernism, serving as a bridge to our second major autumn exhibition: Magritte. La ligne de vie. In this exhibition, Magritte himself narrates the story behind his iconic surrealist works, based on an actual lecture he gave at the KMSKA in 1938.
With Donas, Archipenko & La Section d’Or. Enchanting Modernism, the KMSKA presents a visually and thematically rich exhibition about innovation, networks and the struggles of modern art. Discover a forgotten top talent, her intimate partnership with Alexander Archipenko and her impact on European modernism.
