NEWS

Archive Philippe Van Snick

The Philippe Van Snick Estate is pleased to announce that it received support of the Flemish Government to start a project related to the archive of Philippe Van Snick for the years 1968-1990. This will lead to a valuable inventory and donation of the archive to the Boekentoren at the University of Ghent and a unique digitization project to make the content dynamic and more accessible.

It is an honor to be selected in this project and to share expertise and lessons learned with the larger art landscape, other artists and legacy care takers facing similar challenges and ambitions.

We are looking forward to collaborate with our project partners for this fascinating journey: the research group KB45, the University Library of Ghent (Boekentoren), The Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities and CKV (Flemish Centre for Art Archives).

During this trajectory, we will meet and share our knowledge with other legacy projects of Dirk Braeckman, Jan Decorte, Marie Plissart and Circus Ronaldo amongst others, who were also selected for this grant.

Philippe Van Snick, Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune), 1980. Installation view at Fondation CAB, 2023, Brussels. Photo: Fabrice Schneider

Philippe Van Snick, Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune), 1980. Installation view at Fondation CAB, 2023, Brussels. Photo: Fabrice Schneider

Quinquagesimum

6 September – 5 November 2023

On September 6, the exhibition Quinquagesimum opened at Fondation CAB in Brussels on the occasion of Albert Baronian’s 50th anniversary as gallery owner.

The exhibition presents the works of thirty artists who have lived through the history of the gallery. Some have become major figures of contemporary art and most have continued their collaboration with the gallery. For some, it was their first personal exhibition in Brussels and Europe. The choice of artists was made in agreement with Fondation CAB so that the exhibition reflects the spirit and atmosphere of this place.

The show incldes the work Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune) (1980) by Philippe Van Snick. In 1981 and 1984, Baronian presented two solo exhibitions of Van Snick’s work at his gallery in Brussels.

Philippe Van Snick, Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune), 1980. Installation view at Fondation CAB, 2023, Brussels. Photo: Fabrice Schneider

Philippe Van Snick, Instability of Fundamentals, 1990, vinyl paint on wood, trestles, dimensions variable. Photo: Thomas Ost.

Philippe Van Snick.

Galeria Jaqueline Martins

Review by Wouter Davidts for ARTFORUM

For the May edition of the internationally renowned magazine ARTFORUM, Wouter Davidts wrote a review on the exhibition Instability of Fundamentals at Galeria Jaqueline Martins. Davidts is professor at Ghent University and teaches at the Department of Architecture & Urban Planning and the Department of Art, Music and Theatre Studies.

Instability of Fundamentals marks a key moment in Van Snick’s oeuvre. (…) Rather than drawing on the clear-cut contrast between black and white, Van Snick advanced the semantic tension between black and blue—manifested in the difference between night and day—as the binary basis of his system. The realm he thus opened up was not one of numbers and calculation but of poetics and transience—a realm he moreover did not limit to pictorial space but expanded into the real space of the gallery.

Philippe Van Snick, Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune), 1980. Installation view at Fondation CAB, 2023, Brussels. Photo: Fabrice Schneider

Instability of Fundamentals @ Galeria Jaqueline Martins [Brussels]

Instability of Fundamentals

04 February to 23 March 2023
Opening: Saturday, 04.02.2023, from 17h to 20h

Galeria Jaqueline Martins [Brussels] is pleased to present ‘Instability of Fundamentals’, a solo exhibition of works by Philippe Van Snick (1946-2019). Organized in collaboration with the Philippe Van Snick Estate, the exhibition will feature a large-scale installation, and a selection of significant drawings, paintings and documentation. The exhibition will provide an opportunity to experience a particular body of work, which demonstrates the scope of formal, poetic and conceptual invention within which the artist created.

Philippe Van Snick, Monochrome Déstabilisé-re (jaune), 1980. Installation view at Fondation CAB, 2023, Brussels. Photo: Fabrice Schneider

dynamic project

October 22, 2022 – March 5, 2023

dynamic project showcases the wide-ranging oeuvre of Philippe Van Snick (Ghent, 1946 – Brussels, 2019). The exhibition is structured around ten clusters, a reference to the decimal system (0-9) that is intrinsic to Philippe Van Snick’s work. As an artist, he observed the complexity of life and the world around him. He translated his insights and reflections into a simplified visual language.

In the exhibition rooms, key works alternate with surprising and lesser-known ones. It is almost impossible to categorise Philippe Van Snick’s oeuvre due to the urge for freedom, openness and non-conformism that it expresses.