

JAN VAN IMSCHOOT
La présentation des absents
6 novembre â 24 dĂ©cembre 2021
JAN VAN IMSCHOOT
La présentation des absents
Manuel à une incapacité contemplative Manual for the inability to contemplate
Jan Van Imschoot
Au dĂ©but des annĂ©es 1980, lorsque jâĂ©tudiais Ă lâAcadĂ©mie royale des Beaux-Arts de Gand, la reprĂ©sentation narrative, tout comme la lecture littĂ©raire dâune toile Ă©taient absolument proscrites. LâĂ©criture de la peinture primait sur tout. La figuration se devait dâĂȘtre abstraite ; sinon, il fallait quâelle se tourne vers de nouveaux mĂ©dias. La dimension descriptive de la peinture ne relevait plus que de lâanecdotique. Mon avenir de peintre risquait de se voir confisquĂ© en tant que tel. Cette idĂ©e Ă©tait inacceptable pour moi. Depuis lors, mon moteur serait quâen art, rien ne peut ĂȘtre interdit. Certainement pas le langage.
Jâinterrogeai mon professeur de philosophie des arts sur la comprĂ©hension dâun langage Ă travers un autre, afin de mieux comprendre leurs interactions. Le langage littĂ©raire est un moyen de dĂ©crire, dâillustrer, de donner sens Ă un langage visuel, et plus prĂ©cisĂ©ment de dĂ©crire une Ćuvre. Lâinverse Ă©tait-il vrai Ă©galement ? LâĆuvre dâart pouvait-elle donner la rĂ©plique ? Le combat me paraissait Ă lâĂ©poque inĂ©gal, et la recherche sur lâinteraction entre les langages littĂ©raire et visuel allait me fournir matiĂšre Ă penser pendant longtemps.
In the early â80s when I was studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, both the narrative representation and the literary reading of a canvas were absolutely taboo. What mattered more than anything was the grammar of the painting. Figuration had to be abstract, or otherwise appear in new mediums. Visual storytelling was regarded as anecdotal. If that was indeed so, then my future as a painter would be severely compromised and I could not accept that. So I was driven by a determination to allow nothing in art to be banned. Certainly not language.
Suis-je un littérateur peintre ou un peintre littérateur ?
Am I a painting writer or a literary painter?
Les prĂ©mices de ces pensĂ©es me sont venues Ă lâĂąge de dix ans, alors que jâadmirais pour la premiĂšre fois LâAdoration de lâAgneau mystique des frĂšres Van Eyck dans la cathĂ©drale Saint-Bavon de Gand. ImpressionnĂ© par lâincroyable finesse des traits et lâinĂ©galable maĂźtrise du dĂ©tail, mon jeune cerveau Ă©tait Ă©galement abasourdi par les innombrables significations
To gain a better understanding of how different languages relate to each other, I asked the philosophy of art lecturer how one language can understand another. Literary language is an instrument to describe, illustrate and make sense of a visual language and more specifically to describe a work of art.
I wondered if the reverse was also possible: can the work of art respond? I didnât feel it was a level playing field. I could pursue my investigation into the relationship between literary language and visual language.
But first I should turn for a moment to what had triggered my thinking. I was ten when I first saw the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers, then still in its original place in St Bavoâs Cathedral in Ghent. Not only was I impressed by the incredible finesse of the painting and the artistsâ extraordinary eye for detail, but my small human brain was
que contenait lâĆuvre. Il allait me falloir plus dâune vie pour comprendre ne fĂ»t-ce que quelques bribes de ce chefdâĆuvre. Jâen Ă©tais convaincu alors et je le reste aujourdâhui.
Deux ans plus tard, je dĂ©couvrais les toiles de Van Gogh, dont lâapproche artistique Ă©tait Ă premiĂšre vue diamĂ©tralement opposĂ©e Ă celle de Van Eyck. Les arbres pourpres, soleils verts, lignes courbes et traits brefs mâĂ©mouvaient pourtant au mĂȘme titre que les traits prĂ©cis des maĂźtres flamands, et cela me perturbait. La vue de ces deux Ćuvres pourtant trĂšs diffĂ©rentes suscitait le mĂȘme mystĂšre. Une Ă©nigme que mon jeune cerveau transforma en question : quel est donc le secret de la peinture ? PrĂšs de trois ans plus tard, je me plongeais dans la correspondance de Van Gogh. Elle me parut au moins aussi intĂ©ressante que ses tableaux et je compris que ses dessins formaient le lien entre ses Ă©crits et sa peinture.

La recherche sur lâinteraction entre les langages littĂ©raire et visuel allait me fournir matiĂšre Ă penser pendant longtemps.
I could pursue my investigation into the relationship between literary language and visual language.
stunned by the plethora of meanings it contained. It would take me more than my lifetime to fathom even a tiny fraction of this masterpiece. I was and still am convinced of that.
Two years later, I discovered Van Goghâs paintings. On the face of it, he was the very antithesis of Van Eyck. I was confused to find that purple trees, green suns, curved lines and short stripes aroused in me the same enthusiasm and curiosity. Something mysterious happened when I looked at the two oeuvres and, in my childish head still free of impurities, that enigma became a question: what is the secret of painting?
Some three years later, I pored over Van Goghâs letters, which I found at least as interesting as his canvasses. His drawings served as a bridge between his writing and his painting.
Ă la fin des annĂ©es 1970, je dĂ©couvris le dadaĂŻsme Ă travers diverses publications. Jâassimilai aussitĂŽt ce mouvement Ă du punk avant la lettre. Cette dĂ©marche artistique me poussa plus tard Ă interpeller mes professeurs dâesthĂ©tique, non sans une pointe de provocation, sur lâimpossibilitĂ©, selon moi, de rĂ©vĂ©ler une forme de langage au moyen dâune autre.
De discussion en discussion, jâen vins Ă dĂ©couvrir les artistes conceptuels. Le rapport entre lâart et le langage, tel quâils lâenvisageaient, mâouvrait de nouvelles perspectives. Il mâapparut clairement que la « nouvelle peinture » des annĂ©es 1980 Ă©tait une rĂ©ponse crispĂ©e Ă cet art conceptuel, considĂ©rĂ© comme une menace. Je nâĂ©tais pas grand amateur ni des nouveaux expressionnistes, ni de leur attitude spasmodique face aux conceptuels. Selon moi, il ne sâagissait pas, dans lâart conceptuel, de produire de lâanti-peinture, mais au contraire de crĂ©er une ouverture du champ de la peinture, qui lui redonnait du sens. La dĂ©couverte de lâĆuvre de RenĂ© Daniels ne fit que confirmer cette intuition.
At the end of the seventies, publications provided me with an introduction to Dadaism: punk âavant la lettreâ, as I saw it. That artistic approach provided me with the ammunition I needed later on to question, rather provocatively, my aesthetics lecturers about what I regarded as the impossibility of interpreting one form of language through another.
Be that as it may, those discussions sparked my interest in conceptual art. The relationship between language and art, at least as the conceptualists saw it, opened up new perspectives for me. So the ânew paintingâ of the eighties seemed to me more like an awkward reaction to conceptual art, which to all intents and purposes they saw as a threat. I was not really into those new expressionists and their emotional diarrhoea. I saw concept art not as anti-painting, but as a broader view of painting, with meaning restored to it. My discovery of RenĂ© Danielsâ work only confirmed this.
My belief that art can and should be called into question led me to conclude that the same applied to the history of Western art as a whole.
La feuille verte (détail), 2019 Huile sur toile, 170 à 190 cm Oil on canvas, 66 7/8 à 74 3/4 in. Collection privée
JâĂ©tais convaincu, et le reste, que lâart peut et doit ĂȘtre remis en question, et de lĂ , convaincu quâil en allait de mĂȘme de lâhistoire occidentale de lâart dans son ensemble. Cette thĂšse me fut confirmĂ©e par une exposition consacrĂ©e Ă Joachim Beuckelaer, peintre anversois du XVIe siĂšcle, au musĂ©e des BeauxArts de Gand, Ă la fin des annĂ©es 1980. Les scĂšnes de marchĂ© et de cuisine regorgeaient de symboles pouvant ĂȘtre interprĂ©tĂ©s de diverses maniĂšres, allant de lâostentatoire au religieux, voire Ă lâĂ©rotique, que ma connaissance du dialecte me permettait de dĂ©celer. Pour lâinterprĂ©tation de symboles religieux, je me plongeai dans la Bible et compilai une bibliothĂšque fouillĂ©e dâhagiographies et de biographies de martyrs, afin de pouvoir dĂ©coder tous leurs attributs, la symbolique des couleurs et autres signes distinguant la vertu du pĂ©chĂ©. Je voulais ĂȘtre capable de lire toutes les Ćuvres, de Cimabue Ă Rubens, comme si saint Augustin luimĂȘme me soufflait les rĂ©ponses.


Alors que je nâĂ©tais encore quâun jeune artiste, je compris quâil me faudrait rĂ©apprendre Ă peindre.
While I was no longer a young artist, I realised I had to learn to paint again.
The exhibition of work by the sixteenth-century Antwerp painter Joachim Beuckelaer mounted at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent at the end of the eighties seemed to endorse this proposition. Market and kitchen scenes were awash with symbolism which could be interpreted in different ways. From ostentation, through the religious to the erotic. I recognised erotic references from my dialect. But to interpret religious symbols I pored over the Bible and amassed a library of books on the lives of saints, martyrs and their attributes, colour symbolism and all the other signs to recognise the differences between sins and virtues.
I set about reading every painting from Cimabue to Rubens as if I had been sitting on the lap of Saint Augustus himself.
Alors que je nâĂ©tais encore quâun jeune artiste, je compris quâil me faudrait rĂ©apprendre Ă peindre. Jâavais un peu dâexpĂ©rience, mais il me manquait la base. Il fallait que je ralentisse. Je dĂ©cidai de bannir la vitesse de mon Ćuvre et me mis Ă muser, Ă mâarrĂȘter Ă tout ce que je rencontrais en chemin.
Ma premiĂšre rĂ©alisation dans cet esprit fut une sĂ©rie de petites toiles consacrĂ©es aux cimetiĂšres militaires. Le dĂ©calage entre les croix blanches bien ordonnĂ©es des cimetiĂšres et lâhorreur que les morts ont vĂ©cue est abyssal. Lâimage et le signifiant sâopposent parfois, mais sâĂ©quilibrent aussi. LâesthĂ©tique des cimetiĂšres militaires incite Ă rĂ©flĂ©chir Ă la folie de la guerre. Câest Ă partir de lĂ que je me mis Ă creuser lâambiguĂŻtĂ© de lâimage peinte et Ă lâaccentuer, en attribuant une fonction importante aux titres, dont je me servais indiffĂ©remment pour confirmer, rĂ©futer, duper ou tout simplement jouer les trublions.
Mâinspirant de la dĂ©marche de Francis Picabia, je nâempruntai pas une, mais plusieurs voies. Je coltinai un tas de titres dans ma
While I was no longer a young artist, I realised I had to learn to paint again. Though I had a few yearsâ experience, I needed a better grounding. I knew I should not get ahead of myself, but take my time and build an oeuvre by poking around in anything and everything that came my way.
I started work on a series of small canvasses relating to war graves. The discrepancy between the well-ordered, white crosses in the war cemeteries and what the victims had experienced in the same place could not be greater. Image and meaning can be opposites, but at the same time they balance each other out. The aesthetics of war cemeteries drives home the madness of waging war. At that point I began to concentrate on the ambiguity of the painted image and to emphasise it by assigning an important role to the title, whether it was to confirm, negate, mislead or simply tease.
Inspired by Francis Picabiaâs example, I chose to travel not one path but several, an abundance of titles churning around in my head. Now and then I would write a text over the image. The text served as bars behind which the image was imprisoned and yet still accessible, albeit only with some difficulty. Would
La crÚme de tartre hollywoodien (détail), 2020 Huile sur toile, 130 à 150 cm Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 à 59 in.
besace mentale. Parfois, je superposais un texte sur une toile, le texte prenant la forme de barreaux derriĂšre lesquels la toile serait Ă la fois prisonniĂšre, mais accessible malgrĂ© tout, quoique plus difficilement. Le langage sâavĂ©rerait-il suffisamment pĂ©remptoire pour tenir lâimage Ă lâĂ©cart ?

La musicalitĂ© des phrases est importante et elle masque souvent lâimpuissance Ă les traduire.
Je suis originaire dâun pays oĂč lâon connaĂźt bien les barriĂšres linguistiques, je sais donc que la traduction dâun titre ne peut jamais ĂȘtre tout Ă fait exacte. Outre lâanglais, mes titres sont souvent en français, la langue de prĂšs de la moitiĂ© de mes anciens compatriotes, et la langue du pays oĂč je vis et travaille maintenant. La musicalitĂ© des phrases est importante et elle masque souvent lâimpuissance Ă les traduire.
The musicality of sentences is important and often obscures the difficulty of translating them.
Si Finnegans Wake de James Joyce, est, Ă ce jour, un peu moins important pour mes titres, lâinsaisissable livre aux centaines de pages de dĂ©lire mâinspira pour peindre ma passion de lâhistoire et ma vision pas trĂšs rose de lâhumanitĂ© sous forme de fiĂ©vreuses inepties. Les titres agiraient comme le verbiage dâun dĂ©pendant Ă lâabsinthe, ou Ă lâopposĂ©, comme un verre dâeau de source rafraĂźchissant.
Entre-temps, lâĆuvre de Magritte et celle de Broodthaers, deux maĂźtres Ă©nigmatiques de lâimage et du langage, continuaient Ă me tarauder. Il me faudrait des annĂ©es pour percer un tant soit peu leur Ćuvre. Les films de Buñuel, en revanche, mâouvrirent quelque peu la voie. Ă la question « quâest-ce qui est vrai, quâestce quâune pensĂ©e, ou quelle est la part rĂȘvĂ©e ? », ma pensĂ©e mâa confirmĂ© que dans le domaine de lâart, la rĂ©alitĂ© et la vĂ©ritĂ© nâont pas lieu dâĂȘtre. Si ces deux notions devaient malgrĂ© tout se glisser dans une Ćuvre dâart, alors elles ne pourraient assurĂ©ment que faire la vaisselle.
JâaccĂ©dai Ă la pensĂ©e de Broodthaers Ă travers lâĆuvre de Joachim Beuckelaer et celle de Magritte. La coexistence en français et en dialecte flamand des mĂȘmes connotations, Ă caractĂšre gĂ©nĂ©ralement sexuel, me fut dâun grand secours.
language prove compelling enough to keep the image at a distance?
Coming from a country that is all too familiar with language barriers, I was well aware that titles cannot be translated with complete accuracy. Apart from English, I usually choose French, the language of approximately half of my former compatriots and the language of the country where I now live and work. The musicality of sentences is important and often obscures the difficulty of translating them.
To date, James Joyceâs Finnegans Wake had not played a significant role in my titles, but this evasive book, which rambles on for hundreds of pages, inspired me to paint feverish nonsense in the same work as my beloved history and my nonetoo-rosy view of mankind. Titles should behave like the gibberish of an absinth addict, or conversely, a glass of spring water.
In the meantime, the work of Magritte and Broodthaers â two enigmatic masters of image and language â continued to trouble me. It was years before I found anything accessible in their work. To an extent, films by Bunuel, on the other hand, did show me the way. The question of what is real, what is a thought and what is dreamt confirmed my idea that reality and truth donât know their place in art. If those two concepts do find their way into a work of art, they should certainly be allowed to do the washing-up.
Thanks to Joachim Beuckelaer and via Magritte, I started to find Marcel Broodthaersâ thinking slightly more accessible. The fact that the Flemish dialect and French both use the same, usually sexually-tinged, connotations was a great help too. âCeci nâest pas une pipeâ has the same sexually-tinged connotations, in both languages. âEven when she was giving headâ from Lou Reedâs Walk on the Wild Side belongs to that same order of sexual slang.
In 2019, all my divergent paths converged in the first part of my trilogy, Le bouillon de onze heures, which drew on the oeuvre
LâOrigine de lâhumanitĂ© (dĂ©tail), 2020 Huile sur toile, 75 Ă 65 cm Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 Ă 25 5/8 in. Collection privĂ©e
Ainsi, dans les deux langues, « Ceci nâest pas une pipe » Ă©veille les mĂȘmes associations Ă©rotiques, tout comme « Even when she was giving head » dans Walk on the Wild Side de Lou Reed.
En 2019, tous ces cheminements convergĂšrent dans la premiĂšre partie de la trilogie Le bouillon de onze heures. La sĂ©rie sâinspire de lâĆuvre de Willem Claeszoon Heda, peintre nĂ©erlandais du XVIIe siĂšcle, dont les magistrales natures mortes regorgent de significations Ă multiples strates. Chacun en fait une lecture personnelle, nourrie par ses propres connaissances ou convictions philosophiques. La rĂ©ponse Ă mon questionnement de lâemprise dâun langage sur lâautre devint ainsi plus nuancĂ©e. La danse de joie entre le langage littĂ©raire et lâimage artificielle me permit de laisser mon imagination sâĂ©panouir.

Le rapport entre langage et image reste un territoire ouvert.
Be that as it may, the relationship between language and image is still an open field.
Dans la seconde partie de la trilogie, La prĂ©sentation des absents, je confronte mon imagination sans bornes aux dĂ©tournements ludiques de lâhistoire de lâart par Ădouard Manet. Ă la fois dernier maĂźtre classique et premier moderniste authentique, Manet, mariĂ© Ă la pianiste nĂ©erlandaise Suzanne Leenhoff, connaissait mieux que quiconque les connotations suggĂ©rĂ©es dans les tableaux. Il est le trait dâunion du XIXe siĂšcle entre les maĂźtres du baroque espagnol et la peinture des PaysBas, entre le noir de lâInquisition et lâinsaisissable gris hollandais religieux tout en nuances.
Ses dĂ©tournements ludiques de lâĆuvre de ses prĂ©dĂ©cesseurs, comme Le dĂ©jeuner sur lâherbe, par exemple, quâil peint comme lâimage miroir de Suzanne et les vieillards du Tintoret, se rĂ©vĂ©lĂšrent une douce reconnaissance diabolique pour moi. CoĂŻncidence ou pas, son Ă©pouse sâappelait Suzanne.
Quoi quâil en soit, le rapport entre langage et image reste un territoire ouvert ; les mots se heurtent tĂŽt ou tard Ă leurs propres limites, alors que lâart, tel un oiseau, les franchit en toute libertĂ©.
Jan Van Imschoot
23 avril 2021 â Noncourt-sur-le-Rongeant
of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Willem Claeszoon Heda, who added layers of meaning to his beautifully painted still lifes. Each one of us can interpret them in our own way depending on our knowledge or philosophical beliefs. As a result, the answer to my question about the power of one language over the other became more nuanced. The joyful oscillation between literary language and artificial image allowed me to give free rein to my imagination.
In the second part, La prĂ©sentation des absents, I compare the boundlessness of my imagination to Ădouard Manetâs free and easy attitude to the history of art. Through his marriage to the Dutch pianist Suzanne Leenhoff, that classical master and the first real modernist understood connotations in painting better than any of his contemporaries. He is the nineteenth-century link between the Spanish baroque masters and the art of the Low Countries. Between the black of the Inquisition and the elusive, subtle grey light of religious Holland. For me his playful response to the oeuvre of his predecessors gently opened my eyes to the fact that he had painted, for example, Luncheon on the Grass as a mirror image of Tintorettoâs Susanna and the Elders, particularly pertinent when one knows that his wifeâs name was Suzanne.
Be that as it may, the relationship between language and image is still an open field; words come up against their own borders, while art flies as free as a bird over them.
Jan Van Imschoot
April 23rd 2021, Noncourt-sur-le-Rongeant, France
Juanitoâs Breakfast (Happy Haarlem), 2019 Huile sur toile, 130 x 150 cm Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 Ă 59 in.
Collection privée
Le malentendu (détail), 2020
Huile sur toile, 75 Ă 65 cm Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 Ă 25 5/8 in.
Collection privée











