Vincent Mattelaer (°Kortrijk 1958) is a Belgian artist standing out by making geometric abstract paintings in a way nobody else does.
Over the past two decades he invented, developed and elaborated a particular painting technique. As a result, even in the vast spectrum of Geometric Abstraction, his oeuvre is strikingly original and reveals its unique characteristics when zooming in on the details.
As clean-cut-hard-edge lines and shapes may appear from a distance, a closer look will always unveil their grainy edges because of the paint being sprayed onto the canvas. All paintings are made with spray cans without using masking tape, rulers or templates of any kind, the aerosols are treated manually and there is no robotization or CADCAM involved.
Every single painting is the result of superposed lines and/or circles. Within the limitations of the applied technique, Vincent is continiously looking for new compositions and geometric patterns. Occasionally he implements the proverbial ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’ approach when adapting certain designs but always loyally acknowledges his sources when doing so.
The distinct style perfectly classifies as ‘Art Concret’, meeting all the criteria of Theo van Doesburg’s manifesto, published nearly hundred years ago.
1. Art is universal.
2. A work of art must be entirely conceived and shaped by the mind before its execution. It shall not receive anything of nature’s or sensuality’s or sentimentality’s formal data. We want to exclude lyricism, drama, symbolism, and so on.
3. The painting must be entirely built up with purely plastic elements, namely surfaces and colors. A pictorial element does not have any meaning beyond “itself”; as a consequence, a painting does not have any meaning other than “itself”.
4. The construction of a painting, as well as that of its elements, must be simple and visually controllable.
5. The painting technique must be mechanic, i.e., exact, anti-impressionistic.
6. An effort toward absolute clarity is mandatory.
