CORRESPONDANCES #1 RONNY DELRUE
Drawing is thinking, thinking is moving. These words summarize the layered work of Belgian artist Ronny Delrue (b. 1957). For many years, drawing has been central to his oeuvre. On the one hand, a drawing is an autonomous artwork, but on the other hand it is the direct crystallization of a fleeting line of thought that systematically opens the door to new work. Drawing is therefore not only the result, but also the engine of creativity for the artist, especially in the case of Delrue who not only ‘draws’ with pencil and paper, but also with photographs, ceramics, and other materials. For Delrue, drawing is the culmination of a mental image, and the genesis of the image and its immediate meaning are contained in the lines of the drawing itself. That is why his drawings offer an intimate look inside the mind of an artist who, on the basis of his own reality — shaped by memories, emotions, and opinions — recreates the world a little bit on every page. For this book, Philippe Van Cauteren (director of S.M.A.K., Ghent) selected a series of important drawings from Delrue’s extensive corpus. Three different authors focus on this selection and shed light on the importance of drawing in Delrue’s practice.
Correspondances #1 RONNY DELRUE
This selection of drawings allowed me to take a stroll among experiences and reflections from the past and present. The archive of my thinking was ventilated. Like an archaeologist, I concentrated on traces, frozen images, shards … Despite the cutting-edge technology and the tremendous expertise of the printer, the reproductions of the drawings in this book are nothing more than memories of a reality. They cannot possibly match the physical experience of viewing an original work. Ronny Delrue