Sounds being movement in space, Hugo Van Goethem examines this physical phenomenon from another angel in the series of LANDSCAPES: what do we perceive by moving in space ourselves? The term landscapes is not to be taken too literally by the spectator. Hugo Van Goethem is not a landscape painter in the traditional sense of the term. He does not go out and explore in order to put vast panoramas on canvas. The landscapes which Hugo Van Goethem want to pinpoint are born from the memory of a movement in a landscape. While walking, while driving, while flying our eyes register movement perpetually. These are the images the artist wants to put down on canvas. He does that by preparing paint in advance, then literally putting down a single stroke in a controlled movement. This stroke of paint becomes interesting because while working the friction with the matter – Hugo Van Goethem uses pigments which he mixes withe Caparol resulting in a soft malleable paste – unforseen artefacts emerge.
Just like on the SOUNDS, the artist here also works on the landscapes in series. That can result in a series of individual frames with a singel stroke each to frames which vary subtly in colour and tone in each painting, but moreover the artist also uses just a single canvas on which he the strokes like a miniaturist. In certain frames, the strokes are miniaturized to such a degree that the small storkes in their totality tend to resemble a pointillistic painting. Each spot is then the impression of a memory of a landscape, resulting in a resemblance of these caleidoscopic frames both to pointillism and to impressionism as well. Hugo Van Goethem consciously paints only part of the canvas. He wants to point out that frames are not windows, because in everyday life we do not observe the world through a limited window either. By centring the stroke on the canvas the spectator is to some extend absorbed by the landscape.
Open a gallery of works by clicking here.
You can view framed works on these pages: 1, 2, 3 and 4