Page 33 - Studio Internatinal - October 1974

towards structures which hide their
individuality behind the more dominant
problem of the form. The hyperrealism of
Wittevrongel is a hyperrealism of the eye
corrected by the spirit.

Roger Nellens
Roger Nellens: I have never asked advice from
anyone and one day I discovered the technique
of engraving and I think that all my paintings
come eventually from this technique, which
gives softness, as well as a special kind of light.
Jacky Ickx: You now paint machines. You
got to this point by starting with certain
objects that you found beautiful in themselves,
fascinating by their presence, without past,
non-anecdotal. Then you got to the point of
painting machines that you distort. Why?
Roger Nellens: I am terrified of anything
mechanical, I can't bear to have anything to do
with real machinery, but suddenly the painted
machine, distorted, seemed to me soft and
wonderful. I can caress it, I am its master,
while normally it is the machine that dominates
me — like your motor-bike just now when I
got onto it and it ran over me before I could
of this that the people and objects I portray
do anything. From the moment when I am
have, in the eyes of the spectator, objective
alone in my studio in front of a marvellous
value. The question of communication with
machine then I can dominate each screw, make
others only presents itself at one step removed.
it talk as I want it to. Tinguely is the man
The one thing that provokes in me the creative
who has reintroduced poetry into the world of
process is the permanent, continual and
mechanics. As for me, if I paint machines, it
depressing aggression of our highly over-
is exactly because mine are good for nothing
structured society. Against this everyone must
but to be painted, they are both figurative and
fight in their own way, before we all become
abstract and it is up to me to make of them
like bits of perforated paper. Hyperrealism is
the machines of our dreams and so, at last, to
only the prelude, the announcement by the
possess them.
artist conscious of the role he has to play now
for the future. Sur-figuration is a domain
Roland Delcol
which I have been exploring for many years,
I thought about sur-figuration long before
with photographic documentation.
knowing how to paint objective reality; that
Hyperrealism is the jumping-off point for
was the motivation for my going to the
figurative painting with idea. The painting of
Academy in 1965 — to learn the trade and to
tomorrow will be realist painting with idea, as
give myself some liberty of expression through
Mesens said to me on the evening of 22 April
knowledge of the technique of drawing and
1971 in the rue de Rollebeeck.
painting. My first efforts date from that time.
It was not really until 1967 that I decided to Marcel Maeyer
title all my works Sans Paroles. I represent Marcel Maeyer has shown in his work up till
the external world without allegory or now a definite predilection for the object. He
narration. But, once the image is on the was fascinated by the anachronism of the
canvas, there is a sort of mystery, which does Saint Pierre station at Gand, a neo-gothic
not come from the spectator but from the castle bristling with battlements and topped by
canvas. It poses questions. For example: a a minaret, dated 1913. He discovered there a
naked girl is repairing an Opel-Rekord, the series of images which he transposed onto the
bonnet raised. In the chrome and the roof of canvas with a completely photographic
the car can be seen the reflection of the street precision: an unused weighing machine
and houses. A reflection that I call the decorated with reproductions of old cars; a
`saucepan effect' because of the brilliance. glowing red post-box, ornamented with a (Top) Roger Wittevrongel Sans Titre 1973. Pencil
Some people think that the girl, like the golden crown and post-horn; a wrought-iron design, 73 x 102 cm (Right) Roger Nellens Les
Temps Modernes 1972. Oil on canvas, 150 x 80 cm
heroine of a photograph romance, comes to ventilator; clocks with calligraphed numbers;
All photos courtesy Isy Brachot, Brussels
visit my canvases where I portray our a hair-dressers shop seen through neo-gothic
consumer orientated society, from paradise lost doors and windows.
perhaps. Luckily it is not lost for everyone. They are images corroded by a melancholy permanent presence of an underlying banter,
My experience develops all the time, and at engendered by a consciousness of passing time, to be found in all Maeyer's work if you are
the moment I feel a strong need for they cover a wide range of the disparate ready to listen. It is like the rolling of a
simplification. This is in order to give to each patchwork spectacle which is international camera taking pictures. An anthropomorphic
element more strength and force. It is because reality today. There is also in these works the camera, probably.
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