Artist: Léon Wuidar
Exhibition title: INVENTAIRE
Venue: Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Date: September 6 – October 20, 2018
Photography: Hugard & Vanoverschelde, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
rodolphe janssen is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition “INVENTAIRE” by Léon Wuidar (born in Liège, August 1938) on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This will be our 3rd project with Wuidar after an exhibition at the end of 2016 around paintings from the 80s, and Art Brussels in spring 2017. This new exhibition also comes after the retrospective organized by White Cube in London, in April and June of this year.
Regularly exhibited for 60 years in Belgium and Europe, and present in many public collections in Bel-gium, Léon Wuidar is one of the few Belgian artists who has, throughout his life, persevered in the path of constructive or concrete abstraction. At the dawn of his 80 years, he finally began to receive the rec-ognition he deserved and was rediscovered by a new generation of international collectors and artists.
Léon Wuidar often quotes as sources of inspiration both his childhood in Liége during and just after the war, as well as architecture and his friendship with the architect Charles Vandenhove. The title of the exhibition: INVENTAIRE comes from the text-poem written by Wuidar for the catalog that we will publish in September and which will be offered to the visitors of the exhibition.
With Charles Vandehove, he collaborated on numerous in situ projects, including the Sart Tilman Hospital in Liège in the early 1970s (with amongst others Daniel Buren, Niele Toroni, and Sol LeWitt). Vandenhove will also help him design his house and studio, on the heights of Esneux. A perfect example of the bru-talist and functionalist architecture of Vandenhove, Wuidar lives and works there always surrounded by nature, his collection and his books.
Wuidar’s work is based on precision, discipline and humor; mixing shapes and colors to create harmo-nious, precise and meticulously balanced compositions. His paintings juxtapose squares, rectangles, polygons, and curves often surrounded by a double border of color and always finished by a simple wooden frame. The selection of paintings for our September exhibition goes through 40 years of his life, and will show the diversity of his work with many important paintings from 1968 to 2008, sketchbooks, books he designed the bindings for, and issues of the magazine Mesure that he created with his friends Jo Delahaut, Jean-Pierre Maury, Marcel-Louis Baugniet, Victor Noel, Jean-Pierre Husquinet ans Jean-Jacques Bauweraerts.
In addition, the Galerie Albert Dumont, where Rodolphe Janssen discovered Leon’s work in the spring of 2016, will present recent paintings from 2017, in contrast to works by Hilde De Bodt at Franck Sarfati.
The exhibition will start at the same time as the Brussels Gallery Weekend and will be open for the oc-casion on Thursday 6th from 5 to 9 pm, and friday 7th untill Sunday 9th September from 10 am to 7 pm.
Léon Wuidar (born in 1938 in Liège) lives and works in Esneux, Belgium. Recent solo exhibitions include White Cube, London (2018); Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels, Belgium (2010); L’Espace du Dedans, Lille, France (2009) and Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany (2007). His work was also included in numerous group exhibitions including ‘L’abstraction géométrique belge’, Mouans-Sar-toux, France (2015); ‘Abstractions géométriques belges’, BAM, Mons, Belgium (2014); ‘Un siècle d’art abstrait’, Musée René Magritte, Brussels, Belgium (2010).
His work is featured in numerous international public collections including Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Biblio-thèque Albertine, Brussels, Belgium; Fernmeldetechnisches Zentralamt, Darmstadt, Germany; Dorstener Maschin-enfabrik, Dorsten, Germany; and Fondation IDAC, Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Musée d’Art Wal-lon, Liège, Belgium; Cabinet des Estampes, Liège; Musée en plein air du Sart Tilman, Liège, Belgium; Centre de la Gravure et de l’image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium; Fondation Meeus, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Musée de Mariemont, Morlanwelz, Belgium; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Verviers, Belgium.
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, INVENTAIRE, 2018, exhibition view, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Léon Wuidar, Il n’y a personne,18 avril 68, 1968, Oil on canvas, 90 x 50 cm, 35 3/8 x 19 3/4 in
Léon Wuidar, 5 mai 1999, 1999, Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 cm, 13 3/4 x 10 5/8 in
Léon Wuidar, 22 juin 1999, 1999, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in
Léon Wuidar, 29 juillet 89, 1989, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
Léon Wuidar, 7 février 2001, 2001, Oil on canvas, 40 x 32.5 cm, 15 3/4 x 12 3/4 in
Léon Wuidar, 20 sept. 1983, 1983, Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in
Léon Wuidar, Début 2000, 2000, Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, 27 1/2 x 19 3/4 in
Léon Wuidar, 13 février 1983, 1983, Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm, 28 3/4 x 36 1/4 in
Léon Wuidar, Excroissance, 4 août 1969, 1969, Oil on canvas, 80 x 56 cm, 31 1/2 x 22 1/8 in
Léon Wuidar, 21 sept. 1985, 1985, Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
Léon Wuidar, La folle poursuite, 13 septembre 1969, 1969, Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, 19 3/4 x 15 3/4 in