Walter Swennen's studio in Brussels. Photo: Hans Theys

“People who write about painting forget that it is generally nothing more than a meeting between the painter and the painting...”

Walter Swennen is known for his radical, experiential and associative approach to painting, which is perhaps best summarised as a belief in the total autonomy of the artwork. For Swennen, a painting does not need to be ‘emotive’ or ‘understood’: the primary goal of painting is, quite simply, painting. Everything—form, colour, subject—comes from the outside. A poet before he became a painter, it is no coincidence that language plays a vital role in his practice.

Although his oeuvre varies greatly in scale, style and materials, it can be construed as an on-going exploration into the nature and problems of painting (its potential and limitations), the fundamental question of what to paint (subject matter), and how (technique). The way that he handles motifs—he takes them as he finds them, high or low, and manipulates them at will—is akin to a kind of visual poetry that harks back to his early career as a writer. Freely associative, and above all humorous, Swennen’s paintings explore the relationship between symbols, legibility, meaning and pictorial treatment.

Throughout Swennen's works, French and Flemish hamper and enrich one another. From time to time, he adds other languages, such as English, German and even Greek. In the artist's world, languages seem to be birds of a feather. Most of his paintings are constructed visually through letters, words, question marks and pictograms. It seems language is everywhere, just not to be read.

The Phantom of Painting, installation view, Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2022

“For me, painting always takes place in the present. The present takes up so much space in my head, that there is barely room left to think of things from the past. I don't know on which painting I will work tomorrow. Every morning I run into a new situation. Every morning I have no idea what I should do.”

Walter Swennen in conversation with Isabelle Wéry, on the occasion of his exhibition Parti chercher du white spirit at Xavier Hufkens (27 January—27 February 2021).

Swennen’s paintings, often a blend of lighthearted absurdity and philosophical frivolity, are all some variation on this theme, though they vary considerably in style. This results from the associative method he uses, which makes his work akin to free jazz.

Walter Swennen (b. 1946, Brussels) lives and works in Brussels. A major retrospective opened at Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2021, and subsequently travelled to Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (2021) and Kunst Museum Winterthur (2022). Solo exhibitions include La pittura farà da sé, La Triennale di Milano, Milan (2018); Ein perfektes Alibi, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2015); So Far So Good, WIELS, Brussels (2013-14); Continuer, Culturgest Lisbon (2013); Garibaldi Slept Here, Kunstverein Freiburg (2012) and How To Paint A Horse, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek and De Garage, Mechelen (2008).

All artworks © Walter Swennen

images courtesy Xavier Hufkens, Brussels