MUSEUM TO SCALE 1/7

From a desire for absolute purity, Sergio De Beukelaer goes in search of a new dimension for painting. Postwar geometric abstract art, monochrome painting, hard edge and pop art offer points of departure, but just like minimalism, for De Beukelaer they fall short of offering a powerful pictorial answer to the visual complexity of today's (from a long way more digital) visual culture. The artist reduces that complex reality to clear forms, mixing registers with a certain playfulness. In rigid, geometrically abstract images, the use of color and spatiality ratify the formal and substantive elaboration. Although he sometimes uses white - symbolic of ultimate objectification - De Beukelaer often reduces his subject to color to question the essence of the pictorial interpretation. At the same time, the painting breaks free from its “flat” history and acquires a spatial impact in objects, installations and - through De Beukelaer's concept of the “fat canvas” - three-dimensional paintings.