Roger Raveel
Curator: Melanie Deboutte
Roger Raveel Museum will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2024. A quarter of a century ago, Raveel opened his dream museum, the place where his most important works would be cherished and displayed. The Roger Raveel Museum's collection consists of more than 800 pieces, including 260 paintings and over 500 drawings, carefully chosen by the Machel painter. To mark this anniversary, the exposition The essence brings together a selection of works in museum halls designed by architect Stéphane Beel in close consultation with the artist. Roger Raveel Museum is one of the first museums in our country built for its fundamental function: displaying art.
The essence is largely chronological, allowing visitors to follow Roger Raveel's fascinating evolution and many pioneering painting experiments through the halls. Each room highlights a group of works and an essential moment in Raveel's oeuvre, from the fascinating early paintings to the abstract experimentation, the captivating drawings, the focusing of his New Vision, the actions and the more complex canvases in the 1970s and 1980s: the exhibition sums up Roger Raveel in his essence. Most of the works are part of his own collection, with the addition of a few pieces from private collections.
Works of art such as Four White Posts in My Garden (1948), Yellow Man with Cart (1952), Football Pitch (1952), White Magic (1962), Farmyard with live dove (1962-63), Father in front of the Window Painting (1972) and The Sense of the Meaningless (1990) are on show, alongside other undeniable masterpieces but also rarely shown works. The essence aims to simultaneously confirm what Raveel's lifelong painting is based on but is also showing surprising aspects that underline the timeless nature of this oeuvre. From concrete walls and posts to white squares, the cat, the bicycle trailer, Zulma and father Gustaaf, Raveel's universe comes fully to life in the halls of his museum.
"I think Machelen is a great village. It's a village on the Lys, but it has remained real, it doesn't have that romanticised and artistic character of the other Lys villages," Raveel once said. "Here, everyday life can still go about its business." Even today, one can look over the painter's shoulder in the immediate vicinity of the museum. "Everything is worth being painted, both tree and pole, both brick wall and concrete wall," wrote Roland Jooris, poet, close friend and first curator of the Roger Raveel Museum. Building a museum in his own village offers a huge advantage: the visitor not only gets to know Raveel and his painted and drawn universe, he or she also walks around the area where the painter found his inspiration.
A festive opening weekend will take place on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 March 2024. In addition to visiting the exhibitions Roger Raveel. The Essence and Zulma. Muse and Manager, visitors can take part in a programme of activities and enjoy food and drinks.
Programme:
* Have your portrait made as a David rider and become part of a painting by Raveel (continuous)
* Pin your own work of art (continuous)
* Workshop 'Silhouettes of the imagination' in the museum garden (continuous)
* Raveelian face paint (from 2 to 4 p.m. each time)
Moreover, all inhabitants of Zulte are invited to visit the museum free of charge during this weekend. Afterwards, the free visit will continue every first Sunday of the month.