Willy De Sauter
Biography
°1938 Brugge, Belgium
Lives and works in Tielt, BE.
Few are the painters who, like De Sauter, succeed in pushing painting as far beyond itself while remaining faithful to the painter’s traditional gestures: applying a coloured medium to a ground. Because his objects’ implicit subject – the perfect distance – is relational and contingent, they act as architectural sculptures and choreographies of space, endlessly renegotiating their relation to us, themselves, and their environment.
His work is collected by institutions such a M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens (Sint-Martens-Latem), Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Belgium), De Bond (Bruges), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), and Groeningenmuseum Bruges.
Willy De Sauter is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin), Loom Gallery (Milan), and Galerie Ramakers (Den Haag).


°1938 Brugge, Belgium
Lives and works in Tielt, BE.
Few are the painters who, like De Sauter, succeed in pushing painting as far beyond itself while remaining faithful to the painter’s traditional gestures: applying a coloured medium to a ground. Because his objects’ implicit subject – the perfect distance – is relational and contingent, they act as architectural sculptures and choreographies of space, endlessly renegotiating their relation to us, themselves, and their environment.
His work is collected by institutions such a M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens (Sint-Martens-Latem), Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Belgium), De Bond (Bruges), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), and Groeningenmuseum Bruges.
Willy De Sauter is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin), Loom Gallery (Milan), and Galerie Ramakers (Den Haag).
Selected Solo Exhibitions |
|
2021 | 'De Perfecte Afstand', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE |
2020 | 'Meeting between color fields', Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, DE |
2019 | 'Bauhaus and Beyond‘, Galerie Catalijn Ramakers, Den Haag, NL |
2018 | Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke, BE |
2017 | Collectiepresentatie en recent werk, Groeningemuseum, Brugge, BE |
2015 | Lempertz, Brussels, BE |
2014 | 'Untitled-Color', Galerie Ronny van de Velde, Knokke, BE |
2013 | Museum Dhondt – Dhaenens, Deurle, BE |
2012 | Huize St. Bonaventura, Ghent, BE |
2010 | Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL |
2009 | Galerie CD, Tielt, BE |
2008 | Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE |
2007 | Roodstop, Oudenaarde, BE |
2006 | Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE |
2005 | 'Willy De Sauter – Christian Kieckens', White-out Studio, Knokke, BE |
2004 | Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE |
2003 | CCNOA, Brussels, BE |
2002 | Galerie C.D, Tielt, BE |
2001 | MuHKA, Antwerp, BE |
1999 | Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL |
1997 | Margeret Harvey Gallery, St. Albans London, UK |
1996 | Business Faculty, Brussels, BE |
1995 | Plateau, Brussels, BE |
1993 | De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, NL |
1992 | Plateau, Brussels, BE |
1991 | Galerie Patrick De Brock, Antwerp, BE |
1989 | Vereniging voor het Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, BE |
1986 | De Lege Ruimte, Brugge, BE |
1985 | Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, BE |
1982 | Gallery Richard Foncke, Ghent, BE |
1981 | Gallery Richard Foncke, Ghent, BE |
1980 | Galerie Declercq, Knokke, BE |
1979 | Stichting Veranneman, Kruishoutem, BE |
1976 | Gallery Richard Foncke, Ghent, BE |
1975 | Galerie Aksent, Waregem, BE |
Selected Group Exhibitions |
|
2022 | Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ramakers, Rotterdam, NL |
2021 | 'Works', Loom Gallery, Milan, IT |
2020 | 'L'heure bleue', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE |
2019 | ‘Looking at the world Trough Rose Colored Glasses‘, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE |
2018 | ‘Backstage‘, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, DE |
Artworks

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 1983
pastel on paper
200 x 100 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 1983
pastel on paper
200 x 100 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 1983
pastel on paper
200 x 100 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 1983
pastel on paper
200 x 100 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 2021
pigment, chalk, panel
45 x 30 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 2020
pigment, chalk, wood
60 x 45 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled
chalk on wood, 55 x 45 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitiled, 2018
chalk and pigment on wood
45 x 30 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitiled, 2018
chalk and pigment on wood
45 x 30 cm

Willy De Sauter
Untitled, 1983
copper
52 x 45 cm
News
Press
Willy De Sauter (°1938) Willy De Sauter’s artistic practice is a continuation of a rich tradition according to which art is the vehicle for an abstract representation of reality. His artistic vocabulary could be characterized as a thorough abstraction of forms and structures that can be found back in both nature and in culture, more specifically in architecture. The close observation of buildings, monuments and even photographs are often starting points for de Sauter’s plastic transposition of an existing form into an abstract representation. His works and their presentation refer to architectural history and to the artistic urge to represent the very essence of reality. In de Sauter’s austere oeuvre, places are reduced to non-places. Associations with philosophy, visual art, and architecture are fused into one general and open focus on culture. While his early works were mainly composed of consistent repetitions of line patterns, he has, from the 1990s onward, focused on the realization of monochrome chalk paintings and objects. Although his work appears very minimalist in style, Willy De Sauter invests much time and labor in its meticulous production process. |