Painter Pieter Vermeersch shows new work in Brussels
The oeuvre Pieter Vermeersch has steadily built over the last 15 years explores the metaphysical aspects of time and space through marble and paint
The painter is a printer
But when he was 15, he suddenly saw the light. He decided he would dedicate his life to art (as his brothers later did). “I still don’t know why. Not that our parents pushed me or one of my siblings in that direction,” the artist tells me from his home on the outskirts of Brussels, which doubles as a small exhibition space.
Vermeersch has a new and very intriguing exhibition at Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels. Though all the works are brand new, the show offers a perfect summary of the art Vermeersch, now 42, has been creating over the past 15 years and illustrates the two main strands of his artistic practice: colour field paintings, for lack of a better word, and colour-graded installations.
Also included is a new type of work that he plans to explore more over the next few years: marble blocks with a few touches of paint, hanging from the walls like canvasses. “Aesthetically these marble works might not seem linked to my paintings, but they, too, spring from my fascination with the metaphysical aspects of time and space,” he explains. “The marble is a representation of countless millenia.”
Craft vs creativity
The basis of all his paintings, Vermeersch confesses, are photographs. Yet the most recent in which I can discern any tangible link to the surrounding world are more than 15 years old.
Once a painting is what I want it to be, it’s finished for me
That’s because he relies on a database of photos he shot himself, the artist explains. “I compose those pictures in such a way that there is no reference to what’s on the photo or where it was taken,” he says. “So you’re only left with a notion of space that’s been created by the play of light and shadow.”
The photos are manipulated, he continues, “the colours changed around, and I end up with images that I copy, almost mechanically, in oil paint on a canvas,” he says. “I realise that the photographic elements aren’t visible anymore, but, for me, they’re highly realistic paintings. I could never make them without a photo I can start from.”
Looking back, he says, he has worked from photos from the moment he started painting, even as a young boy.
Vermeersch’s art has typically been described as abstract, and he understands and is fine with the classification. “Once a painting is what I want it to be, it’s finished for me,” he says. “It has a life outside my studio, and I don’t want to influence that.”
Vermeersch’s artistic process is already finished when he picks up a brush, he says. “Making the painting is a craft. Of course, I want to master it as well as I can, but it’s not creative.”
Explaining that he uses a technique in which he adds paint to a layer that hasn’t dried yet, he says: “Since I make them wet-on-wet, I have to finish them in one day. That day, I’m not a painter but a printer.”
A complex stone
The process that preceded the more recent marble works also on view was very different from that for the canvasses. “With the marble works, there’s no preconceived idea,” he says. “I go back and forth, put some paint on the marble, remove it, start over again, wait a few days to see if I still have to add something, etc. It’s a highly intensive process, sometimes even a duel. It’s very liberating. And I love the balance between both practices.”
One decision does precede the act of painting on the marble – the choice of the stone. “The marble needs to have a pictorial quality that still allows me to add some information. I’m looking for complex marble – a complexity that reflects all the time that has passed to form that stone. Sometimes you can even see drama in it. They’re usually pieces that people who are looking for marble for home decor are less interested in.”
On the ground floor of the gallery is a Vermeersch installation that consists of a rough-looking wall and two building walls covered with a blue colour gradient.
This type of installation represents a third aspect of Vermeersch’ oeuvre. “These wall paintings are not related to a pre-existing image. They’re a visual element that manipulates the space in which they are placed.”
All in all, the show makes for a wondrous world, courtesy of an artist still too little-known in his own country.
Until 4 July at Galerie Greta Meert, Vaartstraat 12, Brussels
More visual arts this month
Un-Scene III
For the third time, Brussels contemporary art centre Wiels is bringing together young Belgian or Belgium-based artists in its Un-Scene group exhibition. Their names might sound unfamiliar, but don’t let that deter you. The previous two editions spotlighted several artists who later had solo exhibitions, while one – Vincent Meessen – was even chosen as the main artist for the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. 30 May to 9 August, Wiels, Brussels
Young Belgian Art Prize
Another exhibition that focuses on young artists with ties to Belgium, this show has a history that goes back more than half a century. The 10 artists selected for this bi-annual incentive prize generally are already a bit more known that the ones featured in Un-Scene III, but you can still expect to make new discoveries. The 2013 edition for instance introduced us to the amazing Jasper Rigolle. Still, sometimes the jury really gets it wrong. In 2007, the year Pieter Vermeersch, Sarah Vanagt, Koenraad Dedobbeleer and Virginie Bailly were all featured in the show, the jury decided not to give out a first prize. Let’s hope this year’s jury won’t be as confused. 24 June to 13 September, Bozar, Brussels
Lili Dujourie
This summer, Lili Dujourie, the grand dame of Belgian art, will be honoured with a retrospective that suits an artist of her stature. Contemporary art museum SMAK in Ghent and the modern and contemporary art museum Mu.ZEE in Ostend will both host Folds in Time – that’s how big this exhibition is. The show presents an exhaustive overview of Dujourie’s work, which is extremely broad in scope, with works in marble, lead, papier-mâché, steel, ceramic and velvet that all try to bridge the gap between sculpture and painting. Moreover, she’s responsible for some of the most innovative video art made in the 1970s. 6 June to 4 October at SMAK, Ghent, and Mu.ZEE, Ostend
