KOEN DELAERE
ENQUIRE ABOUT THE ARTIST
These may even be contemporary examples of Harold Rosenberg’s “action paintings”. Certainly they are “not a picture but an event” and though they eschew the pictorial as Rosenberg would’ve wished, there is a revealed metaphorical quality in the fundamental dualism, something that is at the heart of their making and their manifestation and that imbues them with symbolic character.
Andrew Jensen
In the studio of Koen Delaere, you know that the absolute reverse ambition is in play for painting. In the Delaere laboratory there is a genuine anatomy class underway – the body is being undressed, dissected, pushed, and pulled and then reformed, all to a rollicking soundtrack from The Velvet Underground to The Cramps. On the flatlands of Tilburg there is much gothic drama afoot (think Mary Shelley) because Koen Delaere is making paintings that “want to live”. Painting can and ought to be transformative in the way that music can be, but only if it is analogue and unplugged – played live and loud.
Working on the floor, Delaere bulldozes paint, binder, ink et al, mostly along a vertical axis that leaves outrageous accumulations of material moraine at the terminations of the movement and indeed along the central seam. In the wake of these axial movements are wondrous tracks and strata that reveal sweeps of colour and energy. The deeper geology of the paintings are exposed through repeated excavations and what is unearthed by this persistent quarrying are rich seams of colour and form, of new structure and dynamism. The writer Michael Ondaatje said that “as a writer, one is busy with archaeology”. This ought to be equally true for a painter and most certainly is for Delaere.
These are paintings that are fulsome and immoderate. At times they can seem borderline bombastic, but thank goodness, because each painting demonstrates Delaere’s preparedness to lose it all in pursuit of the form and wild chromatic adventure that these singular paintings can evoke.
It is because of Delaere’s conviction to the activity of painting – both as a vital conceptual and aesthetic act, that he is able to restore our (occasionally) flagging faith in paintings’ ability to deliver an utterly embracing experience.
FEATURED WORKS
GALLERY FAIR PRACTICE CODE
- The gallery in question records in writing the relationship between the gallery and the artist, including agreements regarding the duration of the agreement, prices and any applicable discounts. Other matters that may be recorded in this document include: monitoring and evaluation of the agreements, both parties’ targets (e.g. regarding international visibility), the relationship with a second gallery, agreements regarding the settlement of any discounts, regarding commissions from third parties, or the settlement of other expenses such as for transport, photography, insurance or the construction of an exhibition. Model contracts are available on the Dutch Gallery Association (NGA) website.
- The artist remains the owner of their work until the full amount is paid to the gallery, with the exception of secondary trading. This also applies in the case of gallery bankruptcy or attachment.
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- Unsold artworks in the charge of the gallery must always be returned to the artist within a month, if requested by the artist.
- The relationship between galleries may involve competition and rivalry, but in the case of different galleries representing the same artist, the galleries should in all respects remain loyal to the interests of the artist in question. If a gallery exclusively represents an artist, thereby acting as their ‘mother gallery’, and another gallery would like to organise an exhibition with this artist, the involved parties should make written agreements regarding the conditions under which the exhibition can be held (see appendix for a Dutch Gallery Association (NGA) model contract).
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- The gallery vouches for the authenticity of the work that they are selling.* In the case that a work is adjudged to be fake by a recognised independent party, the customer may return the work to the gallery owner and have the amount paid for the work refunded.
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*If desired, certificates of authenticity can be requested from the Dutch Gallery Association (NGA)
EXHIBITIONS
If you ever watched the late and very great Joe Strummer play guitar it was a triumph of physicality over finesse. One strum up, one strum down. Strummer never claimed to be Eric Clapton (& would’ve hated the very idea I’m sure) but he was convinced of the communicative power of music and of “taking action”.
I only saw The Clash play once – way back in 1983 and I can still recall it – sonically, visually and atmospherically – it was very loud, very luminous and very “close”.
I’ve not watched Koen Delaere paint but looking at these intensely visceral paintings, they declare critical aspects of their making in the amount of material evidence that survives the performance. A combination of forceful gestures, almost always along a north-south axis, strong-arms pigment, bulldozing it to the top and bottom. But as physical as these paintings are they are also highly finessed and complex.
Delaere’s cocktail of pigments, which include pigments, inks, mediums together with binders, gives his paint a radical, viscous body that is revealed as it is disassembled.
The process of erasure that follows the laying down of paint, more as geoligical sediment than underpainting, feels primal, as if the works were built by a brutal tectonic jolt which set the processes in action. But again, look closely and you can see these hidden sedimentary layers act like deep strata that are only revealed through mindfully, repeated actions.
Two gestures, north/south, full/empty, thick/thin, push/pull – this visceral union of opposing forces is undeniably essential, dramatic and visually compelling.
