Influential Brussels artist Walter Swennen passed away at 79
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Brussels artist Walter Swennen has passed away at the age of 79, his gallery Xavier Hufkens announced on Saturday. Swennen had been battling illness for several years. His gallery called him “one of Belgium's most influential artists”, someone who “continually pushed the boundaries of painting”.
Walter Swennen, born in Brussels in 1946, first studied psychology and only focused fully on art in his mid-thirties. He created in an intuitive and spontaneous way, an approach that often led to playful and enigmatic paintings. His art was not meant to be understood. “There is no meaning, there is just the secret, and the secret is to be found in the making of art,” he said of his method.
“Central to his practice was the idea that art should be free from imposed meaning, allowing chance, intuition, and curiosity to guide the process,” explained his gallery Xavier Hufkens. “Drawing from a wide range of sources – including free jazz, comic books, philosophy, street signage, and art history – his painting was characterised by humour, linguistic play, and visual experimentation.”
Language played a crucial role in the work of Swennen, who was also a poet himself, particularly the poetry of the beat generation. This focus stemmed in part from his personal history. When he was five years old, his parents decided to speak only French instead of Dutch and sent him to a French-speaking school.
The value of his work was recognised both at home and abroad. In Belgium, he had solo exhibitions at amongst others the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (M HKA), Bozar and Wiels. His work was shown at the Gladstone Gallery in New York and he had solo exhibitions in Milan and Lisbon. A retrospective travelled to museums in Bonn, Winterthur and The Hague in 2021.
In early 2020, Walter Swennen received the Ultima, the Flemish culture prize, for visual arts. At the time, the Flemish government was under fire for plans to cut spending on culture. In protest, Swennen donated his Ultima prize money to the far-left PVDA party. Also notable was the sale of works through the Aldi supermarket chain in 2005. “I prefer to work with a grocer than with a bank,” Swennen said at the time.
#FlandersNewsService | Walter Swennen and King Philippe of Belgium at Swennen's expo 'So Far So Good' at Wiels © BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
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