Come look through the window
In the 1970s and 1980s, Roger Raveel (1921-2013) elaborates on his New Vision: an interweaving of spirit and matter, the ‘pictorial event’ of the painting that is closer than ever to life itself. As is already the case in Raveel's early works, the painter's main source of inspiration is his immediate environment. He translates the impressions he gains in the studio, at home and in the village in a highly individual way into a colorr palette that becomes increasingly bright. We recognize the concrete posts and walls, the fields, the cat, Raveel's wife Zulma and his father Gustaaf who are protagonists in compositions that become more daring and intense; the sizes of the paintings are also growing.
In an attempt to close the gap between the painted universe and concrete reality, Raveel experiments further with the integration of objects in or on the painting: pieces of wood, chicken wire, his shoes, but also mirrors in which the visitor can perceive himself as part of the artwork. Looking back on one's own oeuvre is also typical of the 1970s and 1980s. Raveel often copies his own work and repeats motifs that he has used for decades. He usually also combines different style forms. A realism in the painting or drawing of hands, skyscapes and (self) portraits contrasts with more abstract areas and motifs, painted expressively and often pasty.
The Cart To Carry The Sky (1968) heralds the 1970s and 1980s in which the artwork itself will enter reality. In 1971 Raveel had a raft with a painting pulled across the Leie in an attempt to prevent the old river arms from being filled in. In the same year he installed painted wooden swans in the Bruges canals as part of the Bruges Triennial, which unexpectedly but rightly drew attention to the highly polluted water. Raveel wants to demonstrate that art occupies a valuable place in society and fulfils a role. During the same period, he started producing graphic prints, a medium that allows his work to be disseminated on a wider scale.
The exhibition Come look through the window brings together paintings, objects and drawings from the collection of the Roger Raveel Museum, supplemented by several long-term loans, including graphic work, from private collections.