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Walter Swennen: The Poetic Possibilities of Painting

22 September 2021

On September 23rd, PIASA is holding a Contemporary Art auction featuring works from a French private collection. This 154-lot sale reflects the wide-ranging interests of the collector A.M. in contemporary art, of which he has become a connoisseur.

Walter Swennen has been a major artist on the Belgian and European art scene since the 1980s. Like other painters of his generation, he considers and explores painting through new perspectives, integrating elements from other disciplines. After having been a poet in the mid-1960s, and as if in reaction to the 'reduction' of the visual by conceptual art, he decided in the early 1980s to explore the poetic possibilities of painting.

His work is not characterised by the spontaneous and heroic visual language of his neo-expressionist contemporaries. In retrospect, it appears that Swennen is devoted to questioning the specific issues of painting with a predilection for integrating, diverting or relativising forms of visual culture, whether popular or not.


Walter Swennen (born 1946) Untitled, (F.L.S.), 1984 Oil on panel Titled on the top left Initialed and dated on the reverse 70 x 57 x 3 cm Provenance: - Aliceday Gallery, Brussels -Purchased from the latter by the current owner -A.M. collection, Paris Exhibition: Brussels, Wiels, "Walter Swennen", October 2013-January 2014 Bibliography: Walter Swennen, "So far so Good", R.Pirenne and D.Snauwaert, October 2013, black and white illustration under no.77, p.159

Walter Swennen (born 1946)
Untitled, (F.L.S.), 1984
Estimate: 15 000 / 20 000 €

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