MARCASE

W. VAN DEN BUSSCHE

Curator Provo Museums of Modern Art - West Flanders

Cat. ICC Antwerp, april 1983.

In the mid-seventies MARCASE drastically disassociated himself from Roger Raveel's colour technique in opposing black and white - as anti-colours - to Raveel's typical bright coloration; leaving painting completely behind tor lithography. Marcase was to find most of his inspiration in nature, keeping only same of its motives though, such as the tree and its leafy top. Motives he would use as a repetitive element in his compositions, thus trying to create a certain mobility, which he did achieve via lithographic reproductions of specific motives. In putting the latter next to, above as well as under each other he indeed managed to Game to systematic rhythmics.

With this technique, i.e. the use of one pattern (one and the same lithograph) he somehow referred to patterning-painting; and would be the only one to do so in our country. Soon he was to change the sensibility of this overall picture in painting nuances in ink, still without colours, over the affixed lithograph-assemblages.

The tonalities he obtained in doing so added more shades of lights and darks to his work, shades which concentrated mainly in the centre and thus created a spatial effect and gave it a certain transparence. The affixed lithograph sheets so to speak melted into one, although they were always supported by a geometric framework.

A geometric aspect Marcase was to stress in certain works, thus making them into more of an abstract construction. The motive as such was pushed aside to reappear in the fillings of the geometric structures only. With the light modulations as the only means to break this strict structure. Marcase wanted these light modulations to keep their decisive inportance, so he started looking for other means to create this impression of transparence and mobility. He stopped painting over the repetitive parts and began to use lithographic techniques to add variations to the motive: when printing he would cover certain parts or add elements here and there, so as to change the shape of the work. The repetitive character was kept in using the same lithograph over and over again, although a guiding process was to occur, which would go on until the composition itself had come to an end.

The eye could easily follow the course of a certain motiye through these juxtaposed and superposed lithographs and see it evolve towards complete simplicity and abstraction. The extreme consequences of this work being what they were, he was soon to move on to a new technique and colour choice. Until then, as is said above, colour had been absent from his work and only black and white, with the odd black derivative, had been used. Now MARCASE does put colour in his work. As far as its contents 'are concerned the motivation remains the same, although the repetitive element has been dropped and replaced by a se rial technique in which images of equal construction are used. Which is why his recent work should be seen as part of a series; nature remaining central so that the contents themselves do not change. The colours he uses are also copied from nature, and the variations are strongly reminiscent of the shades and tones aft he changing seasons. The lithograph is replaced by paintings within which several means, such as the stroke and touch or the scratch and daub technique, are fundamentally put into question to eventually have them acquiring a new dimension. The result being strongly spheric impressions of nature that move against a basis of sprayed backgrounds. The serial element now mainly lies in the repetition of one and the same composition scheme which varies only through its changing light and colour modulations. The style remains the same but is each time given new dynamics through the gestures made when painting and the function of the atmosphere one expects to find.

A new impressionism, one might say, in which the motives (representations) are brought back to a strict minimum, leaving the impression (memory) only. In times where brutal expressivity seems to be in (e.g. new expressionist painting) MARCASE 's work offers time for quiet relaxation, time to dream away without the slightest touch of hallucination.