Cat party in Ypres

The painting

This large canvas, measuring no less than 2.05 m by 2.60 m, depicts a busy crowd. At the back, you can recognise the giants: Minneke Poes, Piekje Pek, Goliath and Nicolaas de Kanonnier. In front are the witches, surrounded by other characters from the procession. Among others, you can see the Germanic tribes, the jester and the Marquis of the Booted Cat. Castelain also incorporated references to proverbs and sayings involving cats. In front, the mice are dancing and the large clock in the centre of the work refers to the proverb “The cat is in the watch”.

For a painting with the Cat Parade as its subject, surprisingly few cats are depicted. Or so it seems at first glance. But there are quite a few feline figures hidden among the crowd. The houses in the background are recognisable as Ypres. We are looking at a scene on the Grote Markt in Ypres.

The anonymous crowd

Albert Castelain (1933-1990) moved to Ypres in 1959. He studied for many years at the Ypres Academy and was active in various art circles. In 1976, he exhibited his work in the city for the first time. His second exhibition, in 1979, also featured the work “Kattefeeste in Ypres” (Cat Festival in Ypres). A few years earlier, in 1974, the 20th edition of the parade was celebrated. The parade was given a makeover, with new scenarios, costumes and floats. This generated renewed enthusiasm for the parade.

The artwork is typical of Castelain's oeuvre. He mainly creates large-scale works depicting crowds in public places. It is precisely in these places that people lose their individuality and merge into the anonymous masses. This tension between individuality and merging into the whole is central to Castelain's work. He himself says about the artwork:

‘That's how I saw the Cat Parade for the first time in 1962, but now (sic. 1980) I felt capable – without betraying myself – of painting it. A bustling, ridiculed crowd, carnivalesque heads and noses. Everyone and everything is distorted to emphasise the loss of individuality...’

What is striking about Castelain's depiction of the Cat Parade is that he does not depict the extras. In his painting, the extras and the characters they portray merge completely. You do not see people portraying mice or witches, but real mice and witches. Or so it seems. The distortion of the figures in the painting further adds to the confusion. In other words, the loss of individuality here is total. Or, to end with the artist's own words: ‘For me, the world is a tent with distorting mirrors: everything is distorted, to the point of grotesqueness.’