Silence Is a Message

A colourful survey of the work of Belgian visual artist Hans Vandekerckhove. Text in English and Dutch.
“Silence is a message. The title of this book is anything but accidental. Silence rules in Hans Vandekerckhove’s paintings: a deafening but salutary stillness, as salutary as their intense colours and undulating, almost fluid shapes.” — Eric Rinckhout
In his work, Hans Vandekerckhove (b. 1957) embraces the complexity of life in a unique and compelling way. His art is a harmonious synthesis of personal impressions, art historical references and a deep, intimate connection with nature, architecture and his environment. Vandekerckhove’s distinctive approach combines early Renaissance fresco techniques with the refined glazing of the Flemish Primitives. The result is a poetic visual language that hovers between tangible wonder and a world full of vulnerability.
With contributions by Eric Rinckhout, Christophe Vekeman, Peter Verhelst and Els Wuyts.
Text in English and Dutch.

Hans Vandekerckhove is a slow painter. His work also invites slow viewing. Invariably, he stops time and banishes all sound from his paintings. He allows his world, together with the oil paint, to gradually solidify. Life is put under a bell jar, as it were. Yet Hans Vandekerckhove's work does not shut out the viewer. On the contrary: it opens up and is inviting, even generous. Space, which plays such a crucial role in his paintings, asks to be entered. Like a contemporary Alice, the viewer can step into that colorful and benevolent world: a Wonderland of vast landscapes - with or without a conservatory as a recurring motif - austere modernist architecture, secluded gardens and sometimes a ruin. Often grand and overwhelming, but always protective.