WERNER CUVELIER (curated by Dirk d'Herde)
Werner Cuvelier
Zaffelare – project 1971
Acrylique sur panneau, 50 x 50 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Zaffelare – project 1971
Acrylique sur panneau, 50 x 50 cm
exhibition view
Werner Cuvelier
Statistic project VII. Five philosophical questions (Statistic project VII. Vijf filosofische vragen) (Etude / Studie) 1973,
crayon sur toile, 275 x 290 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Het Binnen
donker grijs (vloer), licht blauw (plafond), rood, donker blauw, groen & geel, olieverf op Unalit-paneel
Werner Cuvelier
cirkels, 2005
gips + eigen preparaat / technique mixte sur plâtre
exhibition view
Werner Cuvelier
Sous-préfecturen France 1975-2012, SC.75.01
Huile sur bois, (84) x 18 x 12 cm et(9) x 18 x 24 cm
exhibition view
Werner Cuvelier
Pachthof Melkerij, Asse (voorstudie), 2005
Huile sur carton sur bois, 34,9 x 107 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Zonder titel, 1997
Technique mixte, 83 x 19,5 x 17,5 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Alle eitempera’s van Rowney (GB), 1999
tempera, 26 x 107 cm, encadré
Werner Cuvelier
Chromatische Fantasie II, alle olieverven van Rowney/ 2009-2011
Huiles sur cartons sur panneau, 10 x 2075 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Chromatische Fantasie II, alle olieverven van Rowney/ 2009-2011
Huiles sur cartons sur panneau, 10 x 2075 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Europa 2010 / 2013
Huiles sur panneaux, (47) x 24 x 18 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Zonder titel, 1997
Technique mixte, 115 x 16,5 x 12,5 cm
exhibtion view
Werner Cuvelier
Pachthof Melkerij Asse, 2005
Huile sue carton sur panneau, 37 x 220 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Cirkel / vierkant / ruit, 2006
Reeks 1/3 2/3 3/3
Werner Cuvelier
Constructie, 1997-2001
Technique mixte, 13,5 x 33 x 10,5 cm
Werner Cuvelier
Sluishuisjes van Canal de Marne à La Saone 2000
Photomontage 151 x 72 cm
21 - 22
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In the early 1970’s Werner Cuvelier (1939, Jabbeke, Belgium) became one of the leading conceptual artists of his generation in Belgium. He came into prominence by producing a series of works – conceptualized as research – that sought to turn into visual form the « objective » data and statistical relationships that underlie the mechanics of cultural production, distribution and exchange. His ultimate goal was not the production of on image per se but, rather, the deconstruction through visual representations of the quantitative relationships behind what he called « the problem of art »(« het probleem kunst »).
Werner Cuvelier attended Sint-Lucas School of Art in the city of Ghent, where he graduated in 1963. Soon after he became a member of the Visual Research Centre (Visueel Opzoekcentrum) and of the group IX of Ghent, which brought him into contact with other members of his generation, including Rene Heyvaert, Yves De Smet, Octave Landuyt, Leo Copers and the art critic and curator Jan Hoet.
Cuvelier began showing his work early on in Galerie Foncke and Galerie Plus Kern of Ghent. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Cuvelier exhibited regularly in Galerie l’A and in Cyan, now gallery Nadja Vilenne, in Liege.
Drawing on the work of Joseph Kosuth, Sol Lewitt, Dan Van Severen, Rene Heyvaert and, especially, the abstract representations of Agnes Martin and the « surveys » of Hans Haacke, Werner Cuvelier developed a unique artistic strategy for the organization, cataloguing and inventory of all kinds of objective data which he employed to reveal the ultimately subjective and arbitrary nature of human events. These data were presented in diagrams, book editions, photographic series or notes.
In the 1980’s, Cuvelier’s work turned towards a more painterly representation of geometric and arithmetical relationships as pure minimalist indexes. In a rich production of drawings, paintings and conceptual works, Cuvelier moved away from his research into the mechanisms of the art world focusing, rather, in the conceptual relationships behind such mathematical constructions as the golden ratio or the Fibonacci series.
In his recent works he returns to the ‘real’ world from which he presents the objective data in a pure painterly way which, surprisingly, often reveals their underlying socio-political structure.