Gallery overview

Provenance Ginny Williams Collection, Denver (CO)

Literature "Berlinde De Bruyckere" Angela Mengoni e.a., Mercatorfonds, Brussels 2014, fold-out II, nr. 16 reprod.

Provenance Gal. S65, Aalst (purchased by the current owner)





THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF GRAY

"Alan Charlton is an artist who makes a gray painting" - is the self-proclaimed adage of the artist. In the 1970s, Charlton decided to create monochromatic paintings using only shades of gray and canvasses whose dimensions have a scale factor of 4.5 cm, the thickness of the stretcher. He chose gray because for him it was the embodiment of everyday life, but he soon realized the potential and expressiveness of this color. While working within these strict frameworks, Charlton explored a wide variety of formal possibilities and combinations with his limited materials. He tends to work in series and methodically through iterations of an idea. "I want my paintings to be: abstract, direct, urban, simple, modest, pure, quiet, honest, absolute," Charlton says of his work.

Literature "L'Atelier du Maître du Fils Prodigue" Georges Marlier, Yearbook K.M.S.K. Antwerp 1961, p. 109 nr. 10 (record of this work) Provenance Auction Van Herck, Antwerp 15/03/1954, auction 77 cat. nr. 24 reprod. (listed there as identified by Max Friedländer)

Exhibition "George Morren" Imprimerie Cl. Thibaut, Antwerp 02.1900, nr. 34
"Catalogue de la septième Exposition" La Libre Esthétique, Bruxelles, 01.03-31.03.1900, nr. 240 Literature "George Morren. Algemene monografie, gevolgd door een beredeneerde catalogus van het oeuvre" Tony Calabrese, Ed. Pandora 2000, p. 76, lists of the works on exhibition in the year 1900

Provenance Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner's grandfather





FAIR AT THE RIVER LYS

Barracks, stalls, tents … here comes the village fair! Joy and amusement tempt people to the banks of the river Lys. It's terribly busy. A merry bunch of men and women dressed in their Sunday best occupy the scene. It's a beautiful, warm and sunny day. While only a few dare the sun, the majority searches for coolness in the shade of the trees.

From 1903-1904, Machelen and its surroundings attracted the attention of Modest Huys. There he found the perfect incentives to depict popular exuberances like processions, fairs, fireworks and other entertainment. He always painted with refined colors and with a striking sense of observation. His entire oeuvre is situated at the river Lys. He was drawn almost obsessively to the banks of the "Golden River". His artworks thus create a strong historical and documentary image of his everyday environment in the first decades of the 20th century.

Exhibition Giroux, Brussels 1929, nr. 24
Antwerpen 1961, nr. 44
Sint-Martens-Latem 1973, nr. 7 reprod. Literature "Gust De Smet. De mensch en zijn werk" Emile Langui, Manteau, Brussels 1945, nr. 123
"Gust. De Smet. Kroniek, Kunsthistorische analyse" Piet Boyens, Antwerp 1989, p. 139 colour reprod., nr. 464, p. 350 Provenance coll. P.A. Regnault, Laren
coll. M.L. De Boer, Amsterdam

Exhibition "Expressionnisme wallon" Gal. du Crédit Communal, Brussels 1993
"Paul Delvaux" Palazzo Corsini, Firenze 1998, cat. nr. 12
"Paul Delvaux. Dibujos de una vida" Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid; Museo de Pasión, Valladolid 1998
"Paul Delvaux. Acuarelas y Dibujos" Fundación Juan March, Museu d'Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca 1999, reprod. on the website
"Paul Delvaux. Les jardins secrets" Gal. Patrick Derom, Brussels 2000
"Paul Delvaux" Salle du Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco 2001, p. 47 afb.
Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique et Littéraire 2008
"Paul Delvaux. Une sélection d'oeuvres sur papier" Museum Elsene 2008-2009

Literature The work is registered by the Jef Verheyen Archive

Provenance Gal. Van de Loo, München
Simoens Gal., Antwerp





FREEDOM AND HAPPINESS

"Would I start? Would I start with small lines, small crosses, small dots, with a big thing going from there to there, with a big spot that would watch me, with an idea? Would I start by stroking the canvas because I dream it's already finished? No, I'm starting." (Alechinsky, Paris, September 1953)
And so Alechinsky starts this extraordinary work. He casually follows his feeling while he applies the acrylic to the canvas. The artist gives free rein to his hand: sometimes the lines are calm and elegant in warm ocher, sometimes he applies brusque, heavy brush strokes in bright blue and green. It is this same hand that tells Alechinsky's fantastic stories and gives expression to the world as he experiences it. The result is a painting bursting with spontaneous energy. The gesture is explicitly present as an expressive tool, reminiscent of American abstract expressionism rather than of Cobra
The painting is a joyful color play evoking instant delight and cheerfulness. But coincidence and the subconscious also have an important role: the images veiled by the splendor of color are not at all unambiguous. Fortunately Alechinsky also loves to play with language, as illustrated by the poetic title which pushes us more or less in the direction of the painting's story. Furthermore, we, as spectator, are challenged to use our own creativity and thus contribute to the creation of the final image. The image of the artist also becomes the image of the viewer.

"L'invention de la brouette" is the title of this oeuvre majeure – so to say in the words of the artist himself. Alechinsky does not make it easy for us as viewers. We can indeed see some wheels. Do the lines form a wheelbarrow? Does the mysterious head at the bottom represent the inventor? Maybe the artist wants to tell us about the invention of the wheel and he mingles title and image as a totum pro parte. Or maybe there is another approach that has to do with Alechinsky's trip to Lapland in 1974, where he makes this painting in the studio of his friend Bengt Lindström in Sundsvall (Sweden). The local stories and legends - which he loves so much - have certainly reached his ears and must have when creating this image. After all, it is up to the viewer and his imagination to complete the story.

Provenance Deweer Gal., Otegem, purchased by the previous owner in 2002