MARCASE (1947)

When we think of line in art, we think, for instance, of Michel Seuphor, the pope of purely abstract line, of Sol Lewitt, who created space with lines, or of Lucio Fontana, who cut lines in the canvas. But we also think of Marcase, pseudonym of 77-year-old Marc Vanhaesebrouck, who turned line into an adventure. Marcase, 1978 laureate of the “La Jeune Peinture Belge” prize and 1979 laureate of the “Prix de Rome”, is what is called a fundamental painter, who seeks the ultimate limits of the medium.

Marcase does so through the line.

Artists like Marcase deserve more attention. Much more attention.

A fundamental painter, he knows how to purge each painting to its essence and reduce it to a balanced composition of lines and planes, in sober colouring and with his own writing. Intelligent, controlled, repetitive and almost meditative. This work never gets boring!