INBOX: Wout Vercammen – A well-considered idea of an exhibition in 3 parts. Aflevering 2: Belgische werken en woordschilderijen
This winter M HKA highlights the work of Wout Vercammen with A well-considered idea of an exhibition in 3 parts, which will be presented as a three-part exhibition.
Wout Vecammen’s (1938) time was marked by a never-ending sequence of revolutions in the art field. The young artist was shaped by what he found in his father’s bookshop, specializing in art and politics. During his schooling as a typographer John Trouillard (one of his teachers) introduced him to the rising trends in contemporary art.
From the 1950s onward, Vercammen exhibited in galleries in Antwerp, but also in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. During the 1960s Vercammen’s focus shifted to happenings, together with Panamarenko, Hugo Heyrman, Bernd Lohaus and Jacques Charlier. At the end of the 1960s Vercammen’s imagery found its own unmistakable final form: givens such as his Belgian identity, a ‘coincidence’ which Vercammen elevated to readymade or his choice to use the square meter as a standard of measurement, which can be interpreted along the same line.
At the end of the 1970s Wout Vercammen’s uncompromising approach was quite different from what was taking place in the Antwerp art scene. He was an outsider and became an artist’s artist. More so through his attitude and behaviour than through his work- which wasn’t very well known- he became a reference for new generations of artists, a living legend who rarely exhibited. With A well-considered idea of an exhibition in 3 parts M HKA pays tribute to a flamboyant artist, a loose cannon and a craftsman.
Click here to explore Episode 1.
Items
"Wout Vercammen calls himself a modernist artist, one who has assimilated a great many influences. He applies (in some works) variations onto the basic template of the Belgian national flag and its three colors. Fresh color-ripples span like rainbows above grubby surfaces or above planes that are simply 'clean'. The irregular geometric patterns and the colored bands betray the influence of Frank Stella. Vercammen practices letter-painting and one notices the impact of texts in large letters and playful finds, for example 'Marcel meets Duchamp'."
(Galerij Spectrum, Leopoldstraat 10 to 27 February)
(source: Gazet van Antwerpen 9/2/78)
Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, 1970
"In the background of many compositions, one notices how using fresh, weighty colors, Wout Vercammen in fact pokes ridicule at the painterly enthusiasm of recent years: 'Hefty Malerei', graffiti, patterning painting and so on. Elsewhere we see handprints that remind one of X-rays, or words on a red pink wall with gauze in front. Wout Vercammen writes words or sentences across the composition. For that matter, he once studied typography. Letters, words and laconic statements are frequent elements in his work."
(source: Beeldschrift [Picture writing], in: Gazet van Antwerpen 7/6/1985)
SOS switch off something, 1973
"In the yellow-red-black colored image of a television 'on the blink', the letters SOS are recognizable, with - written underneath - the words 'Switch off something'. The three colors stand not only for Belgium, but for the phenomenon of the 'modern state' to which Vercammen remains oblivious as well. The labyrinth which elsewhere is conceived in these three colors again testifies to this."
(source: 'Pop-artiest Wout Vercammen blijft maatschappijkritisch' [Pop-artist Wout Vercammen pursues social critique], in: Nieuwsblad 5/12/1991, EJ)
"On hearing the name Wout Vercammen, one immediately thinks of humorous and anarchic situations, but also of a Belgium whose name, tricolor and form comprise recurrent elements in this artist's oeuvre. The least that can be said, is that the man 'has a thing' for this land. He holds up an ironical and grinningly critical mirror to it, while at the same time putting it on a pedestal and elevating it to art."
(source:'Wout Vercammen en Guche Vercammen duo in Si en La' [Wout Vercammen and Guche Vercammen duo in Si en La], in: Gazet van Antwerpen 12/4/1994, WJ)