Presentation
“I was attracted by an atmosphere of reserve, silence, gentleness and sensual melancholy that pervades a part of Correggio’s work, a characteristic that I hope to focus on more clearly through this installation of watercolours”.
Hans op de Beeck finds in Correggio a common attitude of melancholy detachment from reality. In the masterpieces of the Renaissance master, mythological or religious references become the subject of a free and allusive interpretation rather than a mimetic representation of reality; similarly, with a conscious philosophical distance, Op de Beeck’s works are not a representation of the real world, but an interpretation of it through the artist’s very personal vision.
Hans op de Beeck’s piece consists of two groups of works, each involving three large black and white watercolours. Silent reconstructions of everyday environments or objects experienced but temporarily devoid of a presence, representations of elements or natural spaces, presented in monochrome, inspire a sense of expectation, accentuate sensory perception, requiring an intimate condition of contemplation.
The image eschews the spectacular aspect of chromatic richness or dynamism, emphasising how it is not these aspects of Correggio’s work that struck the artist, but rather the intimately melancholic nature.
In Silent Conversation with Correggio, hosted in the spaces of the Bird House, he engages with the great exhibition on the Renaissance painter in the Galleria Borghese collections.
The exhibition is part of the project Committenze Contemporanee, conceived by Anna Coliva.
The work, commissioned by the Galleria Borghese in collaboration with MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo and UniCredit & l ‘Arte, was destined by the UniCredit Group to go on long-term loan to the MAXXI in Rome.
Artist
Hans Op de Beeck, born in 1969 in Turnhout, Belgium, currently lives and works in Brussels.
Hans Op de Beeck’s work covers a wide spectrum of media, ranging from installation art, sculpture, video, animated film and photography to drawing, painting and set design. He builds and stages contemporary, fictive, urban and household locations, situations and characters that are familiar to the viewer. These include both lonely spots for reflection and crowded spaces, populated at times by bungling characters, who tell us something about the way we live today, the paths we follow and how we attempt – with great ineptitude – to deal with time, space and each other. A vein of melancholy imbues his work, along with a spirit of romanticism expressed in the form of stereotypes that he reintroduces to us as modern-day values.
Between 2002 and 2003 Op de Beeck works in residence at MoMA-P.S.1 in New York. In 2001 he wins the Prix Jeune Peinture Belge 2001 and in 2006 he is given the Eugène Baie 2003-2005award. On April 30, 2009, he receives the Catholic University of Leuven Culture Prize 2009-2010.Op de Beeck has taken part in numerous international solo and group exhibitions. His work has been shown in galleries and museums that include the Reina Sofia (Madrid), the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Arizona), the ZKM (Karlsruhe), the Kunstverein (Hannover), the Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), the S.M.A.K. (Ghent) and P.S.1 (New York). One-person exhibitions include: Staging Silence at Galleria Continua, Beijing (2009); Location (6), an installation presented as part of the Holland Festival, Amsterdam (2008); Celebration at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (2008); the traveling show Extensions at the Treasury of St. Peter, Leuven, and at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2007).
At the Art Basel fair of 2009, Op de Beeck presents the monumental sculptural installation Location (6) in the Art Unlimited section of the fair.
Setup
Hans Op de Beeck. In Silent Conversation with Correggio
Installation view
Hans Op de Beeck. In Silent Conversation with Correggio
Installation view
Hans Op de Beeck. In Silent Conversation with Correggio
Installation view
Hans Op de Beeck. In Silent Conversation with Correggio
Installation view
Artworks exhibited
