16 august 2021, Flor Linckens
An artist in dialogue with a collection that he’s part of
It is always exciting to see a private art collection. As a viewer, or perhaps as a collector (in the making), but also as an artist. Which choices have been made — or: weren’t made — and is it possible to discern certain themes? How do the artworks relate to each other? Did the collector(s) choose a specific overarching medium or is the common thread found in its content? Until 28 August, you can see part of the collection of Paul & Marie-Rose Declercq-Benoot in TATJANA PIETERS in Ghent. They also collected work by the Belgian artist Hans Vandekerckhove, who is represented by the gallery.
The exhibition is part of a tradition, in which a gallery artist selects works from a collection that includes their own work. They then create a dialogue between these works and more of their own work. In this third edition of “Private Collection Selected By”, we see work by artists including Charline Thyberghein, Panamarenko, Roger Raveel, Rinus van de Velde and Lisa Vlaemminck, in addition to a series of works by Vandekerckhove. In this exhibition, he shows a series of new paintings. His series “The Rainbow and the Mountain” in particular fits in well with the collection of the collector couple, in which the mountain and the rainbow are recurring elements. The couple mainly collects Belgian art, both historical and contemporary works.
Hans Vandekerckhove, The Mountain and the Rainbow 1, 2021, TATJANA PIETERS.
Vandekerckhove grew up as the second of five children in a creative family: his father was a talented draftsman and portraitist and his mother shared an interest in art. His godfather, a gardener and naturalist, was also an important person in his youth. Vandekerckhove: “That's where seeds were sown for my painterly fascination for gardeners in greenhouses and enclosed gardens.” He decided to study art history at the University of Ghent and wrote his thesis on the work of Hockney. The history of Western art remains an important source of inspiration and during frequent stays in Tuscany and Umbria, he also became fascinated by late medieval and early Renaissance painting. That is why the annunciation motif also features in some of his work [the story from the Bible in which the archangel Gabriel announces the coming of Jesus to Mary]. Other recurring themes are the Rückenfigur [a composition in which you see the back of a figure, as seen in the famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich], but also the garden, greenhouses, the gardener as a character, horticulture, romantic landscapes, modernist buildings, bridges and so on. The relationship between the character and his environment is often central. Many of the paintings invite a certain contemplation, a search for the deeper meanings behind the works.
Hans Vandekerckhove, Christina and the goldfish 1, 2018, TATJANA PIETERS.
Vandekerckhove's paintings have been widely exhibited — from Moscow and Madrid to Ostend — and have been included in the collections of, among others, The Central Bank of Europe, the Flemish Government, Fortis Bank en Verzekeringen, Nestlé, Mu.ZEE, the National Bank of Belgium and University of Antwerp.
