29 april 2024, Manuela Klerkx
The gallery of... Tim Wouters
In the section The gallery of..., we interview a variety of gallery owners from the Netherlands and Belgium and ask them why they started their gallery, what has changed in the art world since then, what their profile is and what they collect personally. This time around, we spoke to Tim Wouters of Wouters Gallery.
Tim Wouters, founder and owner of Galerie Wouters, recently opened a second space in Brussels, located in Zavel (Sablon), the vibrant heart of Brussels where antiques, art – from contemporary to prehistoric – can be found and where you stumble upon the best and trendiest restaurants and bars that Belgium has to offer. He has also decided to expand his gallery programme with art from international, non-academically trained artists. Tim explains, “As a gallery, you have to continue to surprise. I don't feel like opening a new can of young painters every month. That’s a fool’s errand.”
What motivated you to open a gallery?
I studied political science, but didn't see myself going into politics because I don't like the game of politics. I was looking for something challenging and adventurous, and I found that in art. At one point, I walked into a gallery and asked if they had work for me. Shortly after that, I became a partner of that gallery and after that, the owner. I was actually tricked into it because I never thought about becoming a gallery owner, also because I don't come from an artistic family.
How would you define the profile of your gallery?
My gallery is for the ‘added value’ collector. By that I mean that my programme must be distinctive and rather challenging and complex, featuring artists who tell a story. You then soon end up with pioneers, people who were the first to do something and who tell a unique story in an authentic way. So, we show work by Ding Yi, a pioneer of abstract art in China, and by Lynn Hershman Leeson, an American multimedia artist who has been combining her work with social themes since the 1960s in the field of identity and gender in the relationship between humans and technology.
Tim Wouters with Kateria Gregou
What do you consider the most important aspect of being a gallery owner?
Guiding and supporting artists throughout their career. We support them in making exhibitions so that they also grow in that process. We give them the opportunity to show work in exhibitions curated by others and in exhibitions with other artists. So long-term collaboration, the relationship you build with artists, remains the core value of our gallery. It’s also a much stronger bond than with curators or art advisors. I also find one-on-one contact with collectors very important. That's why I prefer to welcome visitors to the gallery personally and I think it's important to take advantage of the foot traffic here in Zavel.
How do you view sustainability, climate change and the growing financial gap between emerging and established artists?
Well, it's outrageous that you have so many metal boxes flying around the world. That’s also one of the reasons why, unlike in the past, we now participate in fewer fairs abroad and on other continents. As far as the financial gap is concerned, there are more and more artists without galleries who are in the institutional circuit and I see an increasing gap between those artists and artists on the commercial side of the art world with prices so high that they can no longer be purchased by European museums or institutions – which are then less inclined to show them at their museum and therefore prefer artists with a non-commercial focus. What I mean to say is that the gap between artists with a commercial and those with an institutional career is growing wider.
Tim Wouters with Jean Katambayi Mukendi
How do you select your artists and based on what criteria?
That's a question I’m often asked. Searching for new artists takes up only around 5% of our time. The rest of the time, you work with the artists on your list. And that's not a volatile list, but a permanent list of 10, 12, 15 artists and occasionally with major changes – say every five years – when new artists are added. You might compare it to finding a beautiful antique at a flea market. You find it because you have a slight hangover that day, the sun is shining and the circumstances are such that you come across an object that you fall completely in love with. That's how the bond with an artist should also be formed. You have to meet them at the right time, just like in a love relationship: if you meet each other at the right time, a love relationship can develop, just as a working relationship can develop with the artist.
How important is the relationship with the international art world for you?
Very important. We can’t be an island. The pandemic forced us to think very locally because suddenly we had to think very locally. We are very happy that we can now focus our gaze back on the outside world. Especially for artists from the outsider or self-taught circuit, we need a larger and more international audience. Belgium does not have enough people with an interest in that. We have a very international programme with artists from such countries as the U.S. and China, and we consider it very important to collaborate with foreign galleries and to have an extensive international network. That's why we regularly participate in foreign fairs. In the past, Artissima, the art fair in Turin, was our Southern European fair. We later switched to Arco, which is very popular with South Americans. Occasionally, we also participate in more local fairs, such as Art Brussels or Art Cologne. We are also considering participating in Art Rotterdam next year.
In a perfect world, which artist(s) would you want to represent?
The perfect world does not exist by definition, but if it did, the first name that comes to mind is Constant Permeke, my favourite Flemish painter, whose home and studio opened recently in Jabbeke. I would also say Anna Zemánková, who sadly passed away in the 1980s. She was one of the most important self-taught artists from Prague, known for her fantastic, fictitious fauna drawings. I would have been honoured to work with her and represent her during her lifetime.
Do you collect art personally and if so, what kind of art?
I mainly collect old art, medieval art, and also naive art. It is common knowledge that you can buy beautiful old art for reasonable prices, pieces that are 400 or 500 years old with wonderful stories behind them. We also have contemporary artworks, but these are often gifts or exchanges. Through my girlfriend, who paints, we have been able to build a very nice collection.
What is the most recent exhibition you have seen that impressed you?
That would be the Ensor exhibition in Ostend. I visited it on the last day and found it truly amazing to see so many Ensors that where new to me – albeit a bit oddly placed next to each other but that doesn't matter...You also saw many painters of still lifes from the Low Countries who often dealt with the same themes as Ensor, but these showed how unique his visual language was, with his typical use of colour and that entire universe in which he grew up in Ostend. That exhibition really struck home for me. Also, the Jef Geys exhibition at Wiels (Brussels, MK) was magnificent. I could wander around in there for hours. An exhibition with a lot of horizontal work and various parts at the same height, from collections to sculptures, a really peculiar universe with very personal work. It's great that Wiels devotes such a comprehensive exhibition to him. But he’s also a very important artist for Belgium and for our language community. After all, it is work in which much Dutch language can be found, if only through newspaper clippings or paper seed packets. Of course, you don't need knowledge of the Dutch language to see that it is beautiful work, to understand it. I really thought it was a fantastic exhibition.
“I don't like glossy photos of artists posing in their equally glossy studios. That doesn’t interest me. Give me a good story instead.”
Do you have any tips for novice art buyers?
Don’t overthink it, just buy a work by Elen Braga. This Brazilian artist has been living in Belgium for a long time and has had many exhibitions in the Netherlands as well. Her work will be on display at MuHKA this spring and she will have a solo exhibition at CC Strombeek in the fall. An artist you definitely shouldn't miss.
