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Raphaël Buedts (Ghent, 1946)
Solo Exhibitions (selection)
Although he grew up in Ghent, Buedts was partly brought up in Mater (a village in the Flemish Ardennes) by uncles and aunts who ran a farm. This is where his fascination for nature and the countryside began. The young Buedts’ mother, who painted in her spare time, encouraged him to take up an artistic career. In the early 1970 s, Raphaël Buedts met the poet and art critic Roland Jooris. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship and collaboration. In 1971, Buedts started designing drawing tables and furniture. That year, he created the Vici table, a “roundsquare table” that occupied a central place in the artist’s home as dining and work table. The wooden furniture things came into being at the same time as the purely functional furniture. His intense drawing work remained an autonomous discipline throughout the entire oeuvre, though he also drew on the wooden sculptures. In 1986, he exhibited Furniture for a Bird at the Wiedauwkaai during Chambres d’Amis, the much talkedabout international group exhibition in various houses in Ghent organised by Jan Hoet, director of the Ghent Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.’s predecessor). From 1985 onwards, Buedts painted, inspired by nature, while his sculptural production declined tempo rarily. To prepare for painting, he drew small sketches in pencil and photographed landscapes and aspects of nature. In the late 1990 s, sculpting once again became the focal point. The rough wooden sculptures entered into a dialogue with open-work pedestals, a series of benches and a collection of easels. When Buedts became ill, he no longer had the strength to sculpt and concentrated entirely on drawing and painting. The last drawings were applied directly to the walls of the Den Bouw gallery in Kalken. Raphaël Buedts died in 2009.
1978 -1990 Galerij Drieghe, Wetteren Galerij Foncke, Ghent Villa des Roses, Ghent Academie Leon, Wetteren Huize St. Jacobus, Ghent Den Bouw, Kalken 1991 v.z.w. Plateau (Flemish Community, Brussels) Galerij S 65, Aalst Stedelijk Museum ‘Het Toreke’, Tienen 1992 Galerie LA, Liège 1993 Huize St. Jacobus, Ghent Galerie Gille-Stiernet, Brussels 1994 Galerie Gille-Stiernet, Brussels 1995 Herman Teirlinckhuis, Beersel CIAP, Hasselt 1999 Galerie De Ziener, Asse 2000 Huize St. Jacobus, Ghent 2002 Galerie De Ziener, Asse 2003 Galerie De Ziener, Asse 2004 Den Bouw, Kalken 2005 Academie Leon (initiative of Roland Jooris and Luc Drieghe), Roborst (Zwalm) 2006 Galerie EL, Welle 2008 White-Out Studio, Knokke Landscape Studio (with the landscape poet Roland Jooris), Schellebelle Back from the L andscape, Galerie Arte Libro, Schellebelle 2009 Den Bouw, Kalken S.M.A.K., Ghent Strombeek-Bever Culture Centre, Grimbergen
Education / Academic positions 1964 -1968 Hoger Sint-Lukas Instituut, Interior Architecture, Ghent 1971-1977 Art teacher, Imelda-Instituut, Brussels 1997-2007 Art teacher, PCVO (Provincial Centre for Adult Education) Waas & Durme, Lokeren