Bert De Geyter - With Amazing Grace

Works with a brutal honesty, that don't shy away from dark emotions but embrace them. Quotes and a color palette that range from white to the deepest black.

Works that don't choose between abstraction and figuration.

With With Amazing Grace, Bert De Geyter presents vigorous flower drawings with explosive lines that connect endless life cycles with an invitation to embrace lightness. For the artist, life is but an unguided eruption of energy that eventually wanes again. A flower blooms, withers, and blooms once more. How we navigate this constant ebb and flow of vitality plays a role in how light we can be.

His Japanese chrysanthemums serve as an exercise in observation and letting go, as we place trinkets of fear in a glass display cabinet. The pigmented haze within De Geyter’s drawings allows a sombre current to wash over the surface. Death, loss, dormant dreams, doubts – uncomfortable and threatening elements that often slip through our grasp – are met with tenderness and enveloped in hope and trust. Without imposing his own directives, De Geyter searches for the essence of the flower. Time holds no sway here. There are no references to concrete moments that we can use to untangle what we struggle to comprehend. This sense of time defies conventional linearity. Much like endless anemones, the chrysanthemum petals dance towards the unbridled nature of life. In this regard, words find their place as emotional totems that emerge, vanish, and challenge. The artist constructs inviting abodes from letters,

offering a gateway to the radical acceptance of what lies beyond our control. The flowers burgeon and fade away regardless.

The title piece With Amazing Grace (2021) speaks to us in layers. Atop the words “THE RAIN, THE RAIN, THE RAIN WALKS DOWN, WALKS DOWN, THE RAIN WALKS DOWN, WITH AMAZING GRAZE”, there are staggered white letters that read “WITH AMAZING GRACE”. This work draws its inspiration from the dry, scorching summer of 2021, during which Flanders longed for water, while the other side of the country was flooded by a devastating deluge. The dual nature of water, both a source of healing and destruction, is encapsulated in this reflection on climate change; grateful for the much-needed rain, without

forgetting that this same rain has brought about many tragedies.

The smaller pieces in the series My Soul Like Water (2023-present) are the result of wet charcoal on wet paper, a technique that makes it challenging to direct the black pigment. The sodden follows its own course, and fluidity is connected to the artist’s core, where control is let go of. Throughout these misty images, words serve to encourage, reflect, and provide solace. The pursuit of capturing the essence of life remains continuous. In the quest for the universal, colour is intentionally omitted, and a form language rooted in basic patterns is intuitively relied upon. Within De Geyter’s cyclical concept of time, there are living spaces

for the repetition of motifs that convey the essence of acceptance.

It all comes together in The Colours Are as Bright as Always (2023), where words arch like a rainbow. Like a multi-layered temple of light, this semicircle anticipates the arrival of rain as well. De Geyter's arches are devoid of colour, yet the seven shades don't seem necessary to recognise their form. It compels us to

reevaluate the way we perceive the world. The rainbow serves as a bridge, inviting us to approach vulnerability with an open heart. Discomfort that has been acknowledged and embraced becomes more tangible. It’s soothing, takes away tension. Just like we can be certain that the energy of flowers will persist,

we can also be assured that the colours will remain as bright as ever.

Yasmin Van ‘tveld, October 2023