Last year, during the summer of 2022, former VUB rector Caroline Pauwels curated the group exhibition Summertime and the living is easy for Schönfeld Gallery – a delightful summer expo amid tumultuous doom and gloom (the war in Ukraine had broken out that spring). Caroline wondered if this was appropriate, but at the same time, she knew that now more than ever there was a need for lightness and delight. Caroline was, as she put it herself, ‘a summer child’; always warm, cheerful and positive, and so she brought an explosion of optimism to an exhibition that went with a bang.
For You can’t keep summer from coming back we first chose several artists Caroline had selected for her expo in 2022, and then complemented them with artists who cultivate a similar spirit in their work. They all create welcoming art with a touch of hope and a pinch of optimism, while maintaining, with an eye for nature and everyday beauty, a certain slowness to their process. Slowing down is part of laid-back summers, and at the same time, it also forms ‘some kind of silent protest: our society should slow down a bit’, as Caroline said in an interview by Danny Ilegems for De Morgen. In our society with its abundance of stimuli, photographer Klaartje Lambrechts (°1976) found, just like Caroline, refuge in the tranquillity of nature, and in ‘the power of silence, wonder and sensory beauty’, as the artist describes it. Lambrechts photographed the sea and the mountains Caroline loved so much, like an ode to her. Lambrechts printed her depictions of the surf in Ostend and the Zagros Mountains in Iran using an old photographic printing process called cyanotype, named after the remarkable cyan-blue colour of the print.
Just like Caroline, Janine Vandenbosch (°1967) sees possibilities everywhere. For this exhibition, she has put an abundance of impressions into portraits. She explores what goes on in our minds in an experimental and genuine manner. Her impulsive, colourful mix of materials results in a certain layering, sometimes easy to recognise, sometimes less so. Who is watching whom? And what are we showing? Because you can do anything in your own mind! Benedicte Lobelle (°1966) also experiments with different materials and techniques. She once painted the sentence “You cannot keep spring from coming” on Caroline’s old Delvaux handbag, because of the “force of nature” the artist saw Caroline as. At this current exhibition, Lobelle shows a dress on which a patchwork of small paintings on pieces of fabric is sewn, accompanied by ceramic works handling the same theme. Lobelle has filmed how she puts on this ritual robe to honour “bloom”, while becoming one with it – the bloom in the garden, but also the blossoming within and between people. In addition, the artist shows an abstract state of emotions through old computer work, and a bit of nature through small bronzes: a strawberry, a tree, a rose.
There’s a bountiful amount of flowers at this exhibition, because Caroline loved them. These days flowers are all that Lidia Szynckiewicz (°1960) paints. The artist grew up in the Polish countryside, where she lived to the rhythm of the seasons. Winters are really hard and make it difficult to feel inspired, but once spring came around with its budding nature, Szynckiewicz went into the garden to pick flowers she joyfully painted. Série Caroline 2 is the continuation of a series the artist started for Caroline last year. It is a tribute to her friend, whom she promised to happily continue painting.
Caroline discovered the series Sunflowers for Spring by Liza François (1995) during the spring of 2022 at the studio of the artist. At that time, however, François was not ready to show this series yet, which was very understandable seeing the project was a very personal one. Although the title of the series refers to spring and its beginning that brings regeneration and hope, the first day of spring is associated with a memory of loss for the artist. On that day in 2014, her father took his own life. In 2021, François left sunflower seeds in the mailboxes of her father’s friends. She then photographed the sunflowers that sprouted from these seeds. Sunflowers for Spring shows that beauty can blossom even in the midst of pain and sorrow, and that hope, gratitude and ‘the transformative power of love, time, and change’, according to the artist, can play an important role.
The sunflower is also central to Eliza Pepermans’ (1988) drawings and paintings. It made Caroline a fan of her work from day one. Pepermans’ still lifes are well-considered arrangements of simple, everyday objects that have, with their rich, intense colours and infectious dynamics, a vibrant summer-like, warm, and unmistakably lively quality. They are like ‘an optimistic antidote to everyday modernism that often feels cold, distant, and unstable’, the artist explains. She blends her antidote with a soft, honey-coloured undertone, connecting all the other colours that are contained with thick, black contour lines. Oozing with a southern type of light, her works make us long for an eternal summer. The sunflowers are eagerly spreading everywhere. They keep turning towards the sunlight, and symbolise a lust for life and admiration, as Caroline also knew – she who celebrated life like no other every day. There’s a widespread admiration for our friend, which was proved once more through the heartfelt enthusiasm with which Summertime and the living is easy was received last summer. But, as Caroline also knew, characteristic to summer is that it passes. And, just like summer, the expo also came to an end – an ending that turned out to be a treacherous silence before saying goodbye. Caroline passed away on 5 August 2022.
Our current group exhibition is not only an ode to summer, it is above all an ode to Caroline Pauwels – to ‘someone who was able to inspire and amaze us like an invincible summer’, as expressed by Greet Umans, director of Schönfeld Gallery. She will always stay with us, because You can’t keep summer from coming back.
-Text by Roxane Baeyens-
Part of the profit made thanks to the exhibition will go to the
Caroline Pauwels noodfonds voor studenten