Sergio De Beukelaer: (cat.) (draw.)

Sergio De Beuckelaer's (cat.)(draw.), a publication on the constructed, colourful world of the Antwerp-based artist.

(cat.)(draw.) by Sergio De Beuckelaer presents his archive of sketches, designs, and preliminary drawings between 1997-2023. (cat.)(draw.) follows our first book published with Sergio (cat.) and presents the prequel to the final result. Discover how an artist plots his designs and handles his archive of drawings. This book gives a deeper insight into the heart of the matter behind Sergio De Beukelaer’s artworks. Sergio’s drawings expose him indiscriminately, hence why he has waited until 2023 to reveal them.

The work of Sergio De Beukelaer looks simple but combines a variety of paradoxes. For example, De Beukelaer uses numerous codes of post-modernistic art from the 1960s and 1970s, such as abstraction, geometry, monochrome, and the “hard edge” technique. But he does so with an irony and playfulness that cannot be reconciled with the attitude of minimalists and fundamental painters. As part of this eclectic approach, classical-modern boundaries are pushed back, without there being any “post-modern” criticism of his predecessors from minimal-, pop- ,op- ,and concept art. Apparent contrasts, such as figuration and abstraction, flat and spatial, word and image, painting and sculpture,b oth contaminate and fertilise one another. In the concept of the “fat.canvas”, a three-dimensional painting, the artist leaves the field of classical painting and conquers the painting space. The shapes, colours, and dimensions of De Beukelaer’s works are tempting, but behind the power of these compact images, a surprising impact lurks on closer inspection. (bron: website Hopper&Fuchs)