Raoul De Keyser: Drift - Hardcover

Loock, Ulrich

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1941701280 ISBN 13: 9781941701287

Publisher: David Zwirner Books, 2016

Synopsis

Often understated, the emotional force of Raoul De Keyser's cryptic and highly lyrical paintings is undeniable. Composed of very basic geometric shapes that hover between abstraction and figuration, many of De Keyser's works seem to hint at forms just out of focus, spaces impossible to inhabit. Their power lies in their ability to suggest through simple gestures, and to compel intense contemplation. Since his death in 2012, De Keyser's stature as a painter has only continued to grow, as has his influence on a younger generation of European painters. Raoul De Keyser: Drift is published on the occasion of the eponymous show at David Zwirner, first presented at the London gallery in November 2015 and traveling to New York in 2016. Curated by Ulrich Loock, who contributes the catalogue's text, the exhibition is organized around a group of twenty-three paintings that the artist completed shortly before his death. Collectively, these works have become known as The Last Wall. Imposing stark m

About this title

About the Author

Since the mid-1960s, work by Raoul De Keyser (1930–2012) has been the subject of several solo exhibitions at prominent institutions. Since 1999, his work has been represented by David Zwirner. In 2000, a large-scale retrospective was presented at The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, which traveled to the Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. A major survey of the artist’s paintings traveled extensively from 2004 and 2005 to the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Musée de Rochechouart, France; De Pont Museum for Contemporary Art, Tilburg, The Netherlands; Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal; and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 2009, his paintings were exhibited in a retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany and his watercolors were presented jointly at the Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin.

Ulrich Loock was born in 1953 in Braunschweig, Germany. He was Director of Kunsthalle Bern from 1985–1997, Director of Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland from 1997–2001, and Deputy Director of Museu de Serralves, Porto, Portugal from 2003–2010. He currently lives and works in Berlin as an independent curator, art critic and lecturer. He has curated numerous exhibitions of artists such as Michael Asher, Matthew Barney, Marlene Dumas, Robert Gober, Katharina Grosse, Eberhard Havekost, Maria Lassnig, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Gerhard Richter, Wilhelm Sasnal, Thomas Schütte, Thomas Struth, Luc Tuymans and Christopher Wool. In 1995, he curated a comprehensive show of Raymond Pettibon’s work at Kunsthalle Bern, and included the artist’s work in the 2006 show The 80s: A Topology at Museu de Serralves.

Review

Mr. De Keyser avoided most of painting’s pomp ― its portent of skill, high seriousness or elevated feeling. He was a brilliant colorist with a genius for a reticent, nondescript beauty that doesn’t demand attention yet can trap the eye. (Roberta Smith The New York Times)

Edition details

• Publisher: David Zwirner Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1941701280
• ISBN 13: 9781941701287
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 112