1948 - 2018

Born in Ostend (BE), lives in Ghent (BE).

From the mid-1970s, Jan Vercruysse (1948-2018) takes to the museum space with abstract collages, installations and assemblages that primarily question the essence of art. Vercruysse is not primarily interested in the artistic production of content or communication, but in the formal quietude of the object itself. A practice that at one given moment brings the artist to present only empty frames. Vercruysse always focuses on the structural precision of his compositions, which are entirely directed inward. All forms of thinking fall away, the oeuvre is self-sufficient in the literal sense of the word. A series of chairs are hung with their backrests against the wall, straight and uniform. A white chair stands on a white sheet on a table, like an accurately composed composition trouvée. Order and regularity, geometric shapes and recurring structures. Objects that can only refer to themselves because they have become meaningless in the context in which they are presented. Or by the way in which the artist has composed them.

Text: Hans Willemse
Translations: Michael Meert