Long Time No See: Raoul De Keyser 1946-1964-1980

When

12-09-2024 to 09-11-2024

Where

Rozier 1, 9000 Gent

Opening hours

Thursday: 14:00 - 18:00
Friday: 14:00 - 18:00
Saturday: 14:00 - 18:00

Raoul De Keyser (1930-2012) started painting in the 1940s as a young man. Yet in the early 1950s, he halted his artistic career, becoming a civil servant and journalist. Only in 1964 he presented himself as an artist again with works initially evoking the new trends in figurative painting (Pop Art, nouveau réalisme) while quickly connecting with American modernism (Colorfield Painting, Post-Painterly Abstraction, Hard Edge). In the 1970s, De Keyser’s work showed strong affinities with both Minimal Art and so-called Fundamental or Systemic Painting.

The exhibition at VANDENHOVE focuses on De Keyser’s early work, consisting of about twenty paintings that were never exhibited before or have not been shown to the public since the 1960s and 1970s. Along some juvenile works, this exhibition includes an exceptional selection of paintings from private collections: works from the 1960s typical of the so-called Nieuwe Visie as well as more sober and layered paintings from the 1970s. They show us the familiar landscapes, rooms, chalk lines, tents, and clouds, sometimes in surprising colors deviating from his more famous works. Moreover, some paintings seem to prefigure some of the themes or sensibilities of his later career. Together, they show a trajectory through the motifs, variations, repetitions and repaints that mark De Keyser's entire oeuvre.

Apart from these paintings that never or rarely have been shown before, the exhibition comprises materials from the Raoul De Keyser archives, which is part of the collection of the Central Library of Ghent University. Installation views, posters, leaflets, sketches, and notes (many of them never published) throw a new light on De Keyser’s early artistic developments, paying specific attention to his activities as a sports journalist and art critic, his connections with Dutch museums and galleries, his affinities with graphic design, his studio as an exhibition space, and his obstinate interest in the ‘objecthood’ of his paintings.

The exhibition Long Time No See: Raoul De Keyser 1946-1964-1980 takes place on the occasion of two publications on the young De Keyser:

• Raoul De Keyser: Early Works. Catalogue of Paintings 1964-1980 (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Köln) edited by Steven Jacobs and Hilde D’haeyere. The book focuses on the understudied early work of De Keyser and includes, among others, a richly illustrated catalogue raisonné of the paintings made between 1964 and 1980.
• Tentoonstellingen te Gent: De kunstkritiek van Raoul De Keyser, 1949-1964 (A&S/books, 2024) edited by Steven Jacobs, dealing with De Keyser’s art criticism of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Exhibition

Long Time No See: Raoul De Keyser 1946-1964-1980

Curators: Steven Jacobs and Hilde D’haeyere
With the support of the Central Library of Ghent University and the Valorization Fund of the Faculty of Letters, UGent.

Book

Raoul De Keyser: Early Works. Catalogue of Paintings 1964-1980

Edited by Steven Jacobs and Hilde D’haeyere
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne, 2024
Texts by Steven Jacobs, Hilde D’haeyere, Wouter De Vleeschouwer, Benedict Vandaele, and Klaartje Vanthuyne
Graphic Design: Inge Ketelers
256 pages, ca. 800 illustrations color and b/w
ISBN: 978-3-7533-0560-8
This publication was made possible thanks to the generous support of Zeno X Gallery Antwerp, David Zwirner Gallery New York, Barbara Weiss Gallery Berlin, Ghent University Central Library, and the Dekeyser family

Book

Tentoonstellingen te Gent: De kunstkritiek van Raoul De Keyser, 1949-1964 (Dutch)

Edited by Steven Jacobs
A&S/books, 2024
With contributions by Godart Bakkers, Koen Brams, Pieter-Jan De Paepe, Wouter De Vleeschouwer, Ine Engels, Sofie Frederix, Steven Jacobs, Naninga Lens, Gertjan Oskar, and Tom Van Imschoot
Graphic Design: Kahil Janssens
This publication was realized in collaboration with the members of the research project ‘Gent, speelveld van de beeldende kunst, 1957-1987’ at KASK & Conservatorium, school of arts of HoGent and Howest.