MARCASE

Glenn T. van Looy

Cat. ICC Antwerp, April 1983.

Art does not depend on pro- or anti-traditional elements, but on the plastic problems that are inherent to a work of art and that are, or are not (as the case may be), brought to the fore or solved by it.

MARCASE, Statement in « Art in Belgium ", 1977

As far as I am concerned, MARCASE'S statement about his own productivity, though made six years ago, seems relevant to art in general and to his own art more particularly. One theme is present, be it implicitly or explicitly, in all of his works, i.e. that of nature: trees, tree tops, meadows, the seasons etc. In moulding and working with these elements he indeed provides the image with a new dimension. Or to put things more generally: an inorganic, monochrome and static (Apollonic) element is added to an organic, colourful, mobile (Dyonisian) structure; and sometimes repetitive reproductions of such static elements are made or fragments of one drawing lined up in serial sequences. Picturally, MARCASE was influenced by the fundamental movement. Which shows in the way he spreads his touches over the entire canvas. It are these pictural elements, together with his well-studied, subtle colours, which are inherent to the subject, that determine the visual impression one gets when looking at the exhibited works. Most of the works consist of several parts (serial aspect), each of which creates a certain, specific atmosphere. To do so one background colour is used, across which graceful calligraphic touches are spread. The central element on the canvas is reminiscent of a monolithic, monochrome shape which either absorbs or radiates light. The intensity of this element's colours definitely modulates the particular atmosphere of the part in which it finds itself, if not that of the entire painting.

MARCASE grants an atmosphere to what could be called primitive traditional elements, using a minimum of pictural means and a maximum of suggestive power to do so.