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Manuela Klerkx
Straight lines in 6 works of art
The Argentine-Italian artist The Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana (1899-1969) was a great innovator in painting. By cutting a straight line - well, almost straight, because he followed the natural movement of his arm - in the canvas he liberated painting from the flat surface. With this radical gesture he distanced himself from the premise that a painting is a flat surface on which one can paint to suggest space. Fontana no longer wanted to make a painting for the sake of the painting, but to literally create new space: “When I work as a painter on one of my prepared canvases, I don't want to make a painting, but I want to open the space, a new dimension for creating the art, connecting it with the cosmos, as it lies infinitely stretched beyond the flat surface of the image."*
A line is really nothing more than a connection between two points, and yet it can be vital to the meaning of a work of art or the relationship of a work of art to the physical space around it. For example, a line can suggest a horizon or depth. Drawn and painted lines, circles and circles actually consist of nothing more than a series of points that, depending on their density and direction, form a broken or continuous line or circle. On the flat surface or in space. Mondrian's vertical and horizontal lines are illustrative examples of this.
For this collection I am looking for the meaning of lines in the work of a number of artists. I will limit myself to the straight, oblique, horizontal and vertical lines and save the curved line that, once closed, forms a circle, for another occasion.
*website Van Abbemuseum
A line is really nothing more than a connection between two points, and yet it can be vital to the meaning of a work of art or the relationship of a work of art to the physical space around it. For example, a line can suggest a horizon or depth. Drawn and painted lines, circles and circles actually consist of nothing more than a series of points that, depending on their density and direction, form a broken or continuous line or circle. On the flat surface or in space. Mondrian's vertical and horizontal lines are illustrative examples of this.
For this collection I am looking for the meaning of lines in the work of a number of artists. I will limit myself to the straight, oblique, horizontal and vertical lines and save the curved line that, once closed, forms a circle, for another occasion.
*website Van Abbemuseum
0 Media items ᛫ 12 Available artworks
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In the press release accompanying the duo exhibition 'Brothers Forever: Koen Muller and Rik Vermeersch' at the Brussels gallery Sofie Van den Bussche, Flemish artist Koen Muller (1948, Eksaarde) says: 'Knowledge has nothing to do with multiplicity, but with depth. I create structures out of chaos. I eliminate on the basis of visual processes appropriated to myself.'
In the abstract painting 'Untitled 8' from 2021, we see exactly what he means by that.
A monochrome surface, which seems to have many layers of oil paint and the thick, left-hand edge of which appears to have been 'sculpted' with the help of a spatula, is given direction by a black, tightly painted, vertical line on the right side of the canvas. The line is interrupted at the centre by a scraped or scratched horizontal line through which the yellow paint below shines through connecting to the black line the left side of the canvas. As if the sculpted left side and the black line are not allowed to run out of the canvas and are brought to a halt by the horizontal line. The horizontal line, however subtle, is essential here because it interrupts the movement suggested by the two vertical elements on the canvas. There is no question of a central point on the canvas, but of a centreline that stops the movement halfway through the canvas. And it is precisely to this standstill and the tension this evokes that the canvas owes its depth and meaning.
(Gallery Sofie Van den Bussche)
In the abstract painting 'Untitled 8' from 2021, we see exactly what he means by that.
A monochrome surface, which seems to have many layers of oil paint and the thick, left-hand edge of which appears to have been 'sculpted' with the help of a spatula, is given direction by a black, tightly painted, vertical line on the right side of the canvas. The line is interrupted at the centre by a scraped or scratched horizontal line through which the yellow paint below shines through connecting to the black line the left side of the canvas. As if the sculpted left side and the black line are not allowed to run out of the canvas and are brought to a halt by the horizontal line. The horizontal line, however subtle, is essential here because it interrupts the movement suggested by the two vertical elements on the canvas. There is no question of a central point on the canvas, but of a centreline that stops the movement halfway through the canvas. And it is precisely to this standstill and the tension this evokes that the canvas owes its depth and meaning.
(Gallery Sofie Van den Bussche)
0 Media items ᛫ 12 Available artworks
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The Antwerp-based artist John van Oers (1967) likes to stylize, abstract and even eliminate figurative elements. During this process, his work takes on an increasingly universal character. For Van Oers, making art is a constant balancing act between withholding and revealing, concealing and revealing. This boat, for example, reveals that Van Oers is a draftsman at heart. With only a few lines, he 'draws' a boat in space, or more precisely, in the air. There is of course of a real boat, one is merely suggested. A small number of lines, brought together by the artist on the basis of his imagination, together create an object that we experience as a 'boat'. Or rather, as a work of art, because what is art more than giving meaning to form?
(De Wael 15)
(De Wael 15)
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De lijnen in de schilderijen van Ricardo van Eyk (1993, Utrecht) komen, net als andere andere schilderkundige onderwerpen zoals kleur, textuur en compositie, voort uit zijn onderzoek naar de betekenis ervan op doek. Hij wandelt graag met zijn camera door de stad, met name over industrieterreinen en in buitenwijken, op zoek naar vormen van onbedoelde schilderkunst die hij vervolgens vertaalt naar het doek. Van Eyk: “De jeugdige rebellie van sommige graffiti vind ik een zeer interessante kwaliteit. Een vandalistische kras of een haal kan een enorme snelheid, kracht en lust uitdrukken.” Van Eyk houdt van krachtige lijnen omdat ze het uiteindelijke beeld bepalen in een spel van chaos en beheersing. Vaak lijken ze fragmenten, of liever gezegd sporen van een ruimte of een plattegrond die in de loop der tijd is vervaagd en door hem nog verder is geabstraheerd en ontdaan van kleur. Hoe abstract ze er ook uit zien, Van Eyk’s schilderijen vinden hun oorsprong in de empirische werkelijkheid die hij, ontdaan van narratieve of andere betekenis dragende elementen, onthult op het doek waar ze een door de kunstenaar geschapen wereld creëren.
(tegenboschvanvreden)
(tegenboschvanvreden)
2 Media items ᛫ 22 Available artworks
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Alain Biltereyst (1965, lives and works in Brussels) bases his abstract paintings on logos (as seen on trucks and on the tail of airplanes) and industrial design (think of the design of a manhole cover or a fence). He records the interplay of lines that is part of this, with attention to layering, repetition and colour on small panels. In this way he manages to strip the visual components of advertising and design of their original meaning and transfer them to the world of art. There they refer to the abstraction of modern painting (De Stijl, Bauhaus) as well as to the everyday reality of advertising and design (Pop Art). The sleek execution of Biltereyst's wooden panels and wall paintings in no way stands in the way of their ability to evoke emotions. On the contrary, thanks to the often 'lived' quality of the colours and the often somewhat soiled background, they communicate feelings of recognition and nostalgia.
(Baronian Xippas)
(Baronian Xippas)
0 Media items ᛫ 1 Available artworks
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Atelier Pica Pica is a multidisciplinary collective of three artists from Liège: Boris Magotteaux (1978), Manuel Falcata (1979) and Jérôme Degive (1980). Sometimes they realize a work of art together, sometimes separately, but they always manifest themselves under a shared moniker. Pica Pica's oeuvre moves between painting, sculpture, photography and site-specific installations and is characterized by tight, clear lines that are reminiscent of the constructivist art of 1910s and 1920s. For their work, the artists conduct extensive field research in the periphery of urban and rural areas where they photograph and/or collect all kinds of materials and objects. From these (found) materials they make objects, including furniture, that illustrate their formal engagement with form, texture, structure, composition and patterns. The meaning and aesthetics of the lines vary from work to work. For example, they can serve to structure (by demarcating boxes on the canvas with lines), to position objects in space and to connect them (with imaginary and material lines) and to create windows that allow the view on the (painted) world. In addition, their work also features flowing, organic lines that form a contrast with the strict lines and enrich their oeuvre.
(Eva Steynen.Deviation(s))
(Eva Steynen.Deviation(s))
2 Media items ᛫ 23 Available artworks
5 Shows ᛫ 13 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
In Lucette ter Borg’s 2016 text 'Who is afraid of blue and green?' it can be read that the works of Jan van Munster (1939) are rock solid but seem to be blown away with one breath because they look so fragile. Ter Borg explains: “That's because Van Munster's work often consists of only one line. Sometimes that line twists, sometimes it shoots up like an arrow, sometimes it forms a circle. The lines are illuminated and have colours made up of neon tubes. The colours, the clear lines give the work its striking drawing-like and aesthetic quality.” One single line. It can hardly be simpler. For Van Munster, that straight line stands for something as essential as peace and quiet, and in the form of a cross, the archetypal symbol of the Western Christian world. Although his visual language is abstract, it refers to major themes such as life and death, the earthly and the heavenly, the human and the divine, which can evoke strong emotions. Van Munster's work connects the rational with the emotional in a minimalistic way, but it shows great vitality and energy.
(Galerie Ramakers/Galerie van den Berge/Slewe Gallery)
(Galerie Ramakers/Galerie van den Berge/Slewe Gallery)