Walter Swennen

Walter Swennen was born in 1946 in Brussels, Belgium. His oeuvre continues to captivate audiences worldwide through solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as WIELS in Brussels, Culturgest in Lisbon, and Kunstverein Freiburg, among other esteemed venues.

Walter Swennen's Art Style

Walter Swennen is renowned for his radical, experimental, and associative style of painting, encapsulating a profound belief in the absolute autonomy of artwork. For Swennen, a painting doesn't necessarily aim to evoke emotions or be fully comprehended; rather, its fundamental purpose is to exist as a painting. He believes that everything—form, color, subject—emanates from external sources. As a poet turned painter, it's perhaps not surprising that Swennen views painting as a form of translation, with language playing a pivotal role in his artistic practice.

While Walter Swennen's body of work encompasses a wide range of scales, styles, and materials, it can be interpreted as a continuous investigation into the essence and challenges of painting—its possibilities and constraints. Central to his exploration are the fundamental inquiries of what to paint (subject matter) and how to paint it (technique). Often utilizing supports crafted from found objects like old plastic sheets or wood, Swennen allows his selected imagery to hover freely over backgrounds composed of more enigmatic elements, such as blocks of color, dripping paint, or unconventional textures.

The images he utilizes frequently stem from popular culture, advertising, and magazines, or manifest as commonplace objects like wine bottles or bicycles.

His approach to motifs—embracing them regardless of their origin or status and manipulating them at his discretion—resembles a form of visual poetry reminiscent of his earlier days as a writer. With a penchant for free association and a distinct sense of humor, Swennen's paintings delve into the interplay between symbols, legibility, meaning, and pictorial execution.