Middle Gate

On 4 July 2019 Philippe Van Snick died at the age of 72. With his meticulous and precise work, he is one of the artists who helped lay the foundations for our current contemporary art scene. This was confirmed last year, when he received the Flemish Ultima for visual arts. M HKA has had the pleasure of working closely with him these past years. In the spring of 2019, 10 dagen – 10 nachten (10 days – 10 nights), which we are showing here, was included in Salon de Peinture. In the fall of 2018 Van Snick collaborated on the exhibition Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna. In 2017 the exhibition Ping Pong, a collection presentation dedicated to the work of Van Snick, was held at M HKA. His work remains, his presence will be missed.

10 dagen – 10 nachten (10 days – 10 nights) consists of twenty colored panels. Ten of them are uniformly painted black, the other ten uniformly blue. Black refers to the night, the blue is for the day. The theme of day and night to see emerges often in the oeuvre of Van Snick. The artist draws his inspiration from the most everyday experiences. Per set each panel is framed by a different color. It comes to color matching between the two series. The ten colors used by the artist, are the primary colors red, yellow and blue, the secondary colors orange, green and violet, the non-white and black and metallic gold and silver. These are the colors which Van Snick always works with. These colors can refer to both a psychological and a physical object. It is up to the viewer to make associations to give the colors meaning. While this works in a very minimalist imagery have been carried out, we cannot completely describe it as minimal as they are focused on the sensitivity of the spectators and witnesses of a radical openness in terms of the interpretation.