Bert de Beul

Memories

1 Jun 2024 - 29 Jun 2024
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Details of seemingly incidental views with mysterious contexts characterise the subjects of Belgian artist Bert de Beul’s paintings, which are being shown for the first time in KEWENIG’s pied-à-terre. The blurred contours in his depictions only hint at architecture, interiors or objects in cool alienation from familiar reality.

The use of blurring techniques in wet oil paint is reminiscent of Gerhard Richter’s painting of the 1960s and 70s. Unlike Richter, however, De Beul manifests the expression of spontaneous impressions, of what is quickly and fleetingly seen and perhaps only subconsciously perceived. While everything that is faded out can appear unimportant and may not remain in memory, De Beul captures these ephemeral images in an emphasised blur, as if in a brief intermediate stage that precedes the fading. 

To find his images, De Beul draws on pictures he has found in everyday life or photographed himself. The associations that these captured moments evoke are the driving force behind the creation of the paintings, while, conversely, they may have been decisive in the selection of the pre-existing motifs. De Beul’s stylistic means of reduction to a small section and distortion of the scale and perspective remove the object from the viewer’s focus. 

It is also the artist’s subjective view of the smallest moment that does not allow any objective perception on the part of the viewer. The paintings are not intended to be representations of things, of the world or of stories, and certainly not depictions of reality. They are about the representation and the fleeting capturing of images. Any reference to time and space is lost. De Beul’s works are enigmatic because they promise a depth of content, although they lack anything that could be identified, that could tell a story, even if it is only about the beauty of an object. 

This promise, as well as the masterful execution of the paintings, releases an astonishing power of attraction. Therefore, on the one hand, it is easy to immerse oneself mentally in the depicted subject and, with the help of one’s own visual experiences and associations, to engage in a dialogue with each of the works. On the other hand, this is a challenging task. After all, each individually viewed image is already overlaid and interwoven with other images consumed from a large number of media.

Since the 1990s, Belgian painters, such as Luc Tuymans and Michaël Borremans, have been working in very different ways to create their own critical pictorial world in the face of a ubiquitous stock of images. With his strategy of manipulating the images, however, De Beul’s work represents an extraordinary position that favours the atmospheric element. 

With the help of the distance created by the painterly concealment and simultaneously empirical accessibility, De Beul draws the viewer into an interplay of recognisability and alienation and offers a dissociation of reality that leads to reflection on the meaning of the remembered and unremembered images.

Works

pied-à-terre
noun; plural des pied-à-terre
UK/piˌeɪ.dætˈeər/US/piˌeɪ.dætˈer/

French: a small house or apartment in a city that you own or rent in addition to your main home, where you stay when visiting that city for a short time;

Unlike a classic gallery, the pied-à-terre offers more than just a place to display art—it’s a creative foothold for experimentation and collaboration. Borrowing its name from the French term for a "temporary home," this dynamic space invites artists and galleries to step beyond traditional boundaries and explore new territories. With a constantly evolving programme, pied-à-terre combines the fresh voices of emerging artists with a reimagining of historically significant positions, fostering a lively exchange between creators and the public. It’s a place where art is not simply shown, but actively discovered, experienced and transformed.

pied-à-terre
Mommsenstr. 4
10623 Berlin
mail@the-piedaterre.com

Thu – Sat: 11 am – 6 pm
and by appointment