Bert de Beul (b. 1961) is a Belgian painter from Ghent, who lives and works in Antwerp. Since the mid-1980s, he has created a very coherent body of work that questions the meaning of images. His paintings consist of figurative depictions of everyday life based on pre-existing photographs mostly taken by himself, or coming from books and magazines. De Beul only shows a detail of the original picture, placing the most random element at the centre of his composition – such as a pile of books, a kitchen sink or road signs.
His cropped landscapes and still lifes develop a non-narrative reflection on the meaning of representation. Characteristically, a blurred and muted palette creates a distance between the viewer and the subject that contrasts with the scale of the close-up composition. This distance is expressed in terms of time rather than space, placing the subject in the past, as the subdued memory from a somewhat familiar scene. By blurring his paintings whilst using the traditional approach of light and colour to figuration, De Beul explores the gap between the dubious perception we have of images today and their ancient truthful value.
De Beul’s work is included in the collection of the MHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; the PMMK Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium; the Museum van Elsene, Brussels; and the Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki. Institutional exhibitions have been held at the Kunsthalle Rostock; the MHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; the PMMK Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende; and Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, amongst others.
