HORIZONTAL DRAWING

C. Solenberger, Elevations, Graphite and Ink, 2011

This simple but unexpected blog on architectural drawings is a source of input of all kinds inviting us to go for deeper research about some great architects/drawers.

Yining Tan, Axonometric Manipulation

Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren, 1924

The young artist Nel Aerts (1987°) is known for the use of very divers media. She recently added painting to the ones she used before. She explains in De Witte Raaf (1) how the interaction of her colorful collages and the development of her recent paintings fascinates her. She talks about their common character of compaction in a visual language.

An exposition of Jean Brusselmans and several iconic images from painters as Walter Swennen and Philip Guston directed her first wood paintings.

The work of Aerts is at the same time playful and absurd, poetic and grotesque. She questions her world and position as a young artist. She is always somehow present in her work.

(1) Koen Brams, Soetkin en Toon Beerten, Het begin van het kunstenaarschap: een gesprek met Nel Aerts. De Witte Raaf, jaargang 27, nr.161, p.19 (januari - februari 2013)

De averechtse val van Huize Frankendael - Nel Aerts

Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam
19 januari - 24 maart 2013

© Mark Manders, Three Touched Numbers / Yellow Bathtub. (1999 - 2000) Pencil on paper / 65 x 50 cm / The Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchased with funds provided by The Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis A. Roach, Directors)

In the magazine Metropolis M of this month, Mark Manders talks about the focal points in his work. They are the most literally present in his drawings. For Manders they are a way of looking back in time. You can see the decisions he has taken. The lines go back to the focus. It makes you able to look inside the head of the artist.

© Mark Manders, Several Drawings on Top of Each Other (1990–2002), Bronze, pencil on paper / Ca. 40 x 480 x 60 cm / Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (purchased with funds provided by The Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis A. Roach, Directors)

On the other hand, Mark Manders explains how his work is constructed. It is extremely stylized, and at the same time you notice a sequence of actions.

In the context of his total oeuvre he also describes how his work generates new works. "(..) the next work is actually already decided in the previous work. A language that I can call on has developed which is completely separated from events in my life." He lets his work lead himself. (1)

(1) Behoorlijk Compleet. Interview by Nickel van Duijvenboden, Metropolis M, Volume 33, n.6, p 60-65 (2012 December - 2013 January)

This summer I was just a few minutes too late to see the floor drawing from Hannelore Van Dijck on the opening of "Le Plat Pays" in De Voorkamer in Lier. The rain was fast. As a poetic action the weather decided after two dry weeks of working to erase the drawing in a short moment and to leave us with some black puddles. This time, it was not only the artist and the spectator who destroyed the image while observing, but nature was part of the process.

Rests of black chalk on the floor stay part of the installations. In the end of the realization of the charcoal wall drawing in Croxhapox in Ghent, a black trace was left under the nose of the artist. Frank Maes wrote a beautiful text in "the Moustache" in Van Dijck's recent publication "So grün war mein Tal" (1).

(1) Hannelore Van Dijck, I.-XI. So grün war mein Tal. Posture Editions N°3 (2012).

Joachim Koester, My frontier is an endless wall of points (after the mescaline drawings of Henri Michaux),

Joachim Koester (°1962, Denmark) shows a mass of turbulent moving lines in his 'psychedelic documentary' about the drawings from Henri Michaux. Koester is attracted by the human body and its 'terra incognita', its subconscious. The Belgian artist Michaux (°1899 - 1984) tried to write in a pure visual way without the use of written language or meaning, influenced by mescaline and other mind-expanding substances. He wanted to explore a world that may not be possible to capture in words.

Joachim Koester, My frontier is an endless wall of points (after the mescaline drawings of Henri Michaux),

Joachim Koester, Maybe One Must Begin with Some Particular Places,

Smak, Gent, till 2013, March 10

Steven Baelen doesn't speak about his drawings as sketches, but calls them notes. They are no study's, neither finished, but appear as autonomous work. He notes the environment, especially his studio. It is filled with a lot of stuff. Life continues and apparently nothing changes.

© Steven Baelen,Watou,charcoal on wall, 2009

Baelen tries to catch moments in time. He obliges himself to build empty spaces in order to counteract the fullness of his surroundings. The white space functions as a punctuation mark and helps the viewer to enter the space.

Book launch, artist book "Der Raum im Verzug", made in collaboration w/ Akademie der Künste, with a text by Hubertus von Amelunxen, Elaine Lévy Project, Brussels

2012, December 20 - 22

Tinus Vermeersch creates a universe with laws and proportions different from the world we know. Sometimes the drawings seem to refer to a lost civilization from the past. Archeology and original cultures inspire Vermeersch. He uses several archetypes.

The characters are often performing an unclear act. An absurd and surrealistic layer shines through the image.

Colourful objects float in front of a grey space. They remain of hair covering dark empty spaces. The microscopic small details don't enlarge the meaning of the forms; they are undefinable.
The drawing represents a process. The sidebar is filled with some pencil lines. The viewer has an analytical insight in the colours used for the collection. The forms seem to belong to a bigger unit. It looks like one part is missing.

© Tinus Vermeersch, Tegumen XIII, 2011, tempera on paper, 60 x 80 cm

Land-schapes in Gallery Hopstreet, Brussels
November 10 - December 22, th - sa, 2 - 6 pm