Clos 2003

Curator: This is Raoul De Keyser's "Clos" from 2003, realized with acrylic paint and watercolors. What are your initial impressions? Editor: Stark and deceptively simple. There's a kind of casual precision here that creates a mood. The rough, slightly irregular shapes float in a way that feels balanced but off-kilter at the same time. Curator: Exactly! Notice how the spatial relationships create tension, activating the canvas. De Keyser focuses intently on pictorial structure. He orchestrates the flat planes of color to invoke semiotic readings and multiple possible spatial interpretations. Editor: I'm more drawn to the materials. It's interesting that he chose to combine acrylic paint and watercolors. Acrylic creates flat opacity, but watercolors give transparency. Looking at how De Keyser built up the grounds, they don't look entirely flat—do you see evidence of sanding or scraping, and other tactile maneuvers? Curator: Interesting that you bring up process, as surface tension is the prime quality here. This work uses formal reduction. Shapes become signs stripped to the most elemental forms; notice their seemingly arbitrary arrangement. The overall pictorial logic echoes back to his exploration of modernist structure. Editor: But the handmade quality subverts that impulse toward pure formalism. It doesn't quite transcend the act of making—you can see the touch of the artist. This draws me into De Keyser's studio—what kind of tools he might have used, how many layers, his gestures with his hands… How are the materials themselves generating meaning here, not just form? Curator: That's one approach, certainly. I remain compelled by how this composition evokes the tradition of abstract painting, referencing luminaries like Malevich and Rothko but in its own quiet and thoughtful way. Editor: I think what draws me back to it is its subtlety, its refusal to shout. Considering all of its making—materials and gesture, not only its composition—that modesty is its triumph. Curator: An evocative point of view! This piece invites extended visual meditation on fundamental artistic gestures, like the creation of surface and line.