Jef Cornelis

Jef Cornelis was a prolific Flanders based documentarian of modern art, over a 35 year period, for Belgian television, though IMDb has acknowledged only 7 of his several hundred films.Cornelis studied set design (his art documentaries pay as much attention to the spaces and buildings in which art is presented, as to the artefacts themselves) and direction at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.Most of his life was spent in Antwerp.He himself appeared infrequently on-screen and avoided other presenters and talking heads, he also kept mood signalling music to a minimum and instead allowed the viewer 's attention to wander through installations and even allowed for conflicts to be shown as to the art and how it was being presented.In later years exhibits of his tv work were mounted at the Liverpool Biennial, at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London, at Casino Luxembourg, at Arts Santa Monica in Barcelona,and at the Roger Raveel museum in his native Belgium.Cornelis died on September 26th, 2018.