Walter Swennen

In the 1980s, Walter Swennen made a name for himself on the art scene with works featuring simple, everyday motifs and a seemingly naive style. Comic books, children’s drawings and painting manuals for amateurs fuelled his imagination. He opted for subjects that were easily understood and immediately recognisable. This choice may seem counter-intuitive given his paintings, which are structured around language and develop an aesthetic of erasure and the illegible. The former poet deliberately mistreats words in these works. A devotee of self-mockery, unpredictability and humour, Swennen does not hesitate to employ this kind of reversal. He mocks the autocratic figure of the author and subjects deemed important. Mig sketches the outline of an aeroplane in blue acrylic. The white background, deceptively simple, divides the canvas into different sections using various shades. Two lines very finely divide the expanse into four equal parts, giving the impression of a folded sheet. Painting and drawing come together on the canvas under the guise of apparent naivety.

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