The exhibition Scribble, dabble, splatter, smear questions the intrinsic properties of painting as a visual medium, its technical qualities and its two-dimensional universe full of signs and motifs. The focus is on the inherent visual strategies used by the artists based on personal considerations and in response to contemporaries and predecessors. After all, authorship is a relative concept. The artwork is created in a place where the artist is working, in a local context, but is embedded in a much larger and broader story that transcends national borders and time.

The selection only includes artists who were or are active in Belgium and spans more than a hundred years. Every work and every artist is shown in a proportional way – from the ‘here and now’. With this exhibition, the curators wish to sharpen the view of the visitor (back) and to adopt a critical, alert and investigative attitude towards the most enigmatic but also the most popular and therefore beleaguered medium in history: painting.

Guest curator

Vaast Colson (1977, Kapellen) is a visual artist. After training in painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, he developed a practice that focuses primarily on critically questioning artistry, the art world today and the status of the art object in the form of performance and installations.

Artists

Fred Bervoets, Jean Brusselmans, Jacques Charlier, Anton Cotteleer, Jan Cox, Franky D.C, Thierry De Cordier, Raoul De Keyser, Valerius De Saedeleer, Gust. De Smet, Stefaan Dheedene, Marthe Donas, James Ensor, Alice Frey, Vincent Geyskens, Jacques Lizène, René Magritte, Roger Raveel, Pjeroo Roobjee, Léon Spilliaert, Walter Swennen, Narcisse Tordoir, Luc Tuymans, Edgard Tytgat, Thé van Bergen, Guy Van Bossche, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Frits Van den Berghe, Jan Van Imschoot, Herman Van Ingelgem, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Philippe Vandenberg, Jan Vercruysse, Marthe Wéry, Henri-Victor Wolvens, Maurice Wyckaert