Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

For this blog post I’d like to feature two people who had a distinct influence on my work, Marc Maet and Philippe Vandenberg. These guys used to be my teachers in Painting while I was studying at the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK).  Tragically both painters ended their lives, this didn’t leave me indifferent. Marc Maet was my teacher in my first year at the Academy, he was the coolest dude I had ever met. Cowboy boots, pitch black combed back thinning hair and a black moustache. We had to paint still-lives and every now and then he gave demonstrations. Whenever he picked up a brush to fix a part of a painting one could only be in awe of the confidence with which he put down a section. He was a very no-nonsense kind of guy pushing us to creating strong images that had nothing to do with concepts or vague narratives. Without going into detail his work evolved from abstract expressionism to a surrealist style with occasional references to Magritte. Both Marc and Philippe were guys who lived and breathed painting. It would be stupidity to try to sum up their oeuvre in a few measly phrases… Philippe Vandenberg was a gentle, troubled giant. He taught me in my final two years at the Academy. He totally shifted my way of painting, pre Philippe I was a landscape painter, out every day with my easel and palette. He forced me to look inside my head, mental landscapes, my work turned surreal, dark existential and very weird. Although visually these days I am much more in line with my landscape work, the underlying threads in my work are rather far from landscape painting. Philippe’s belief in me as an artist was so strong that he swore he would come and break my legs if I ever stopped painting. He often referred to me as a terrorist painter, I was known for burning canvasses in my studio… It was no coincidence that both painters were close friends. After Marc ended his life Philippe made a large number of works processing the loss of his friend. Vandenberg’s work evolved from painting that could be compared to early painting by Pollock to dark phases painted in blood and scenes of torture. Again I apologize for the disrespectful brevity of this description. The gravitas these guys brought to the table is engrained in my being, at the surface of my pictures there is often a pretty, semi-decently balanced picture, underneath lies a modest abyss. philippevandenberg.be