Hans Vandekerckhove at Tatjana Pieters

Artist: Hans Vandekerckhove

Exhibition title: Voltaire’s Advice

Venue: Tatjana Pieters, Ghent, Belgium

Date: September 16 – October 25, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Tatjana Pieters

During the past year Hans Vandekerckhove has been working on a new series of paintings, which he titled ‘Voltaire’s Advice’ based on Voltaire’s eponymous, ecological fairy tale about Candide.. Voltaire sent Candide on a trip around the world going from one disaster to another, to finally let him conclude that we could better maintain our own garden: il faut cultiver notre jardin.

The story inspired Vandekerckhove to create a series of paintings about his former inside and outside world, ranging from his fathers greenhouse, his mothers veranda to Virginia Woolf’s Monk House in Kent and Derek Jaman’s Prospect Cottages in Dungeness, as well as about his actual inside – and outside world (self-portraits and conservation pieces of his children and his loved ones vs the English country walks and the discovery of the Great Glasshouse by Norman Foster).

Vanderkerckhove wants to re-enchant through his paintings, creating a paradise-like world with colour and shape in which looking at things leads to a connection with the origin. Like looking at the world as if you were seeing something for the first time: to discover the beauty in every small place, to look for the mystery that is hiding at every fleeting moment.

The paintings reflect the slowdown that has started since the emergence of the current pandemic. It offers us another chance to rediscover the here and now and to contribute to a better world by focusing on passion and surrender, regardless of expectations.

Hans Vandekerckhove lives and works in Belgium. He studied Art History at the Univeristy of Ghent. A selection of past exhibitions are: Art Autun, (FR), Musée Rolin (FR), Art4Museum, Moscow (RU), Mu.Zee, Oostende (BE), Museum MKM, Duisburg (DE), SMAK, Ghent (BE), FCA, Madrid (SP). Vandekerckhove’s work is part of multiple private collections throughout Europe and the US. ‘Voltaire’s Advice is Vandekerckhove’s first solo exhibition at Tatjana Pieters.