Liturgie Colorée

Axel Vervoordt is pleased to present the group exhibition, Liturgie colorée, in the Henro and Ma-ka spaces at Kanaal. The exhibition features work by Saburo Murakami, Anish Kapoor, Jef Verheyen, Kazuo Shiraga, Gotthard Graubner, Bosco Sodi, Chung Chang-Sup, Raimund Girke, Michel Mouffe, Masaomi Raku, and Renato Nicolodi.

The exhibition’s title is derived from a 1975 diptych by Verheyen that serves as a philosophical and curatorial theme. Liturgie colorée is about the contrast of colours depicted in the two paintings, and more broadly, is about the contrast of meaning between blue and red — night and day — water and fire — heaven and earth — cold and warm — tranquility and aggression — decrease and increase (of light). Artistic explorations of contrasts and colour’s inherent power are omnipresent in this exhibition. Particularly in individual works as well as the dialogue of works within the installation, viewers can experience the force and subtlety of colour in terms of technique, form, and language.

For instance, colours preside over Verheyen's paintings and represent the artist's interpretation of the world and the way we perceive nature and eternality. He believed our perception of the natural world has nothing to do with the factual depiction of the landscape and employed colour and light to transcend viewers beyond mere physical human experience.

Verheyen made an elaborate study of the colour comparison of blue and red in an early manifesto “Pour une peinture non plastique”. Moreover, it’s in line with Jean Fouquet's painting “Madonna” (1452), one of the masterpieces on view at the recently reopened Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In Fouquet’s work, the pale skin of the elegant Madonna strikes with the blue of the Cherubs — referring to purity and air — and the red of the Serraphins — referring to love and fire. Verheyen had great admiration for this work and a reproduction of it hung in his studio. In this exhibition, viewers may find a confrontation of colours in the monumental Gutai work of Saburo Murakami from 1965. Colour as material, colour as meaning, and colour as energy are the dynamic forces at play in this work.

Anish Kapoor is an artist equally fascinated by colour’s sacred meaning. Installed in the centre of the Ma-ka room, “White Dark XIII” (2005) is a large round sculpture in white monochrome that represents the ultimate void in which the visitor is being pulled into silent, ultimate contemplation. This gleaming, pure porthole offers a vision of vision, illusion, and dematerialisation. In the space, the sensuous concave void is flanked by a triptych by Michel Mouffe, “Trilogie ABC” (2012), which seems to arrive at a uniformly shimmering white by layering many translucent layers of colour that veil each other. Hanging opposite Mouffe’s work is an untitled work from 1973 by Raimund Girke. For Girke, white was the queen of all colours; for colours are the "actions of the light" (Goethe) and white is the colour most akin to the light. Together, the works succeed in displaying a concept of transcendence through colour that helps to redefine space and perception.

In the exhibition, a second work by Kapoor crafted out of black granite is placed in dialogue with a Thai Lingam, as the male (lingam) and the female (yoni) are one other’s opposites. Installed nearby, the deep black monochrome works by Chung Chang-Sup and Bosco Sodi enhance a sense of spiritual purity. By choosing just one colour, the one that reflects no other colours, these artists explore the tranquility of total abstraction and recreate a sense of dissolution of material differences. Similarly, Masaomi Raku cuts his sculpture “Transmigration ‘Thunderbolt’” (2016) out of natural Zimbabwe Granite, maintaining the rough face on one side and meticulously carving the rest of the surface with precise tools. His work is based on the principle of the circle of life in nature, the symbiosis between life, earth, and wind.

Red is the most passionate of colours and Liturgie colorée offers an evocative exploration of two artists’ passion for red. For Kapoor, “Red is the colour of the earth, it’s not a colour of deep space; it’s obviously the colour of blood and body. I have a feeling that the darkness it reveals is a much deeper and darker darkness than any other colour.” This quote is particularly resonant when considered in connection to the work, “Eyes Turned Inwards” (1991-92), a sculpture that explores the magic, mystery, and seemingly infinite void through pigment and form.

Kazuo Shiraga, one of Gutai’s prominent artists, violently spread vivid red paint with his feet, using his body as a brush of cosmic power. Shiraga commented that, through this method of painting, he wanted to display "traces of action carried out with speed." Indeed, the flow and build-up of pigment in this displayed work — “Enji” (1983) — create a dynamic effect resembling the violent movements of a massive beast, and the surface of the painting preserves the raw movements of the artist challenging the canvas.

Consider the presence and materiality of colour in the work, “Gesackets Kissen” (1969) by the late German artist Gotthard Graubner. Volume, space, and colour are at the heart of the artist's body of work. During his career, Graubner materialised his pictorial concept through the notion of Farbraumkörper where he enhanced the spatial effects of his colour surfaces, by adding cushions in his pictures.

Artists of monochrome works use their canvases and sculptures as imaginary screens, inviting the viewer to question the meaning of memory and existence. Renato Nicolodi does this with his sculptures, which represent archetypical forms of architecture. His work “Fetish” (2019), acts like the shrine for the void. The ever-present dark hole invites the viewer to dwell in it mentally.

Altogether, “Liturgie colorée” is an exhibition about the power and intimacy of colours and how they enwrap viewers to lose or gain a sense of spatiality, spirituality, and deep feeling. As Verheyen said, "seeing is feeling with the eyes."

Discover more about the exhibition and the individual works here.