- Sam Dillemans
Sam Dillemans (born
17 January ,1965 inLeuven ,Flemish Brabant ,Flanders ) is a Belgian painter and is considered as one of the most important Belgian contemporary painters.Fact|date=March 2008Background
Dillemans was born in Leuven,
Belgium .cite web
title = Sam Dillemans, the artist
publisher =Sam Dillemans
url = http://www.sam-dillemans.com/info/artist.html
accessdate = 2008-03-05] His father,Roger Dillemans , is a former chancellor of theKatholieke Universiteit Leuven .Fact|date=March 2008 After High school, Dillemans studied at several academies in Belgium and abroad. He obtained the French Higher National diploma of Plastic Expression Option Art. He now lives and works inBorgerhout ,Antwerp and for some years he has been teaching drawing and painting at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts inAntwerp and was a guest professor at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts of Flanders, also in Antwerp.A documentary about his work and life, "The Madness of Detail", was entered in the "Creative Documentary" category at the 21st International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes held in
Biarritz ,France in January 2008.cite web
title = Sam Dillemans
publisher = International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes
date =2007
url = http://www.fipa.tm.fr/programmes/en?2008doc_17788
accessdate = 2008-03-05] and won the "FIPA d'Or for best creative documentary".cite news
title = Documentary about painter Sam Dillemans wins FIPA d'Or
language = Dutch
publisher =De Standaard
date =2008-01-27
url = http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelID=B21670901080126
accessdate = 2008-03-05]Work
The work of Dillemans has deep roots in European painting tradition. According to Dillemans painters such as
Vincent van Gogh ,Peter Paul Rubens ,Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres andPablo Picasso are not artists of the past, but artists of today. They inspire him daily and at times depress him. To Dillemans it does not matter when something is painted, but how it is painted. The method of painting, how paint and brushes are used to seek or construct some truth, is timeless.Fact|date=March 2008His work is a quest to find the visual equivalent for the complex interaction between imagination, feeling, consciousness and the painting technique on itself. To achieve this goal, Dillemans says, painters have a hard and daily task to fulfil. They can not be satisfied by the clear perception of reality as an evidence of truth, but have to try harder to touch at the end their subjects. With tick strokes and an impressive relief on the surface Dillemans style contains indeed a highly form of elasticity and plasticity.Fact|date=March 2008
The process of creation is an important aspect in his work. During this process the paintings mostly seem to become gradually more abstract. Dillemans is convinced that a painting only has a chance to become "something" as the paint starts to get its own live. Not in the same way as the abstract expressionists, therefore his work is to much rooted in European tradition, but in a way that the strokes become autonomous and follow their own logic and at same time still are tributary to a recognizable and even classical form. Modernism, classicism and academism seem to come together in his work without any contradiction between each other.Fact|date=March 2008
World vision
Dillemans world vision is rather sombre. He works intensively. There is a lot happening in different parts of his paintings. In that way painting is an intense occupation. A lot of painters in the past were occupied by the same endeavour and according to Dillemans, "a painter like Ingres drew his right to be taken serious. In his case it is about a beautiful aristocratic seriousness which has nothing to do with self glorification. Proof of that is that he still was copying Michelangelo at the age of sixty five."Fact|date=March 2008
tages
Because of his constants efforts Dillemans output has already gone through different stages. During the period from 1993 to 2000, he did an intensive study of the female portrait. His former wife modelled for him. Also actresses such as
Hilde van Mieghem andTania Kloek were sometimes used as a models. A second period from 2000 to 2003 was a period of reflection during which he studied the old masters. This phase influenced his later work. From 2003 onward he began a pugilistic painting project with numerous boxing scenescite news
title = The biggest pugilistic painting project ever
publisher = worldcupofboxing.com
date =2005-01-05
url = http://www.worldcupofboxing.com/news/05010501.html
accessdate = 2008-03-05] in which a rhythmical movement between individual figures and the presence of physical bodies are in constant dialogue with the baroque. He also started a series of portraits of well known figures who he admires including Ingres and the Belgian cyclistEddy Merckx .De Kus
In "De Kus", a Belgian drama film by Hilde Van Mieghem, some of his paintings and drawings are shown in the background as if they were created by one of the characters in the film.
Exhibitions
A selection of his exhibitions includes,
* "Classical beauty" at the
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp , 1994
* "Belgian Art 1945-1999" inWarsaw ,Poland , 1999
* "International Young Art", Art LinkSotheby's ,Chicago ,United States ;Vienna ,Austria andTel Aviv ,Israel , 2000
* "14+4, Kunt aus den EU-Ländern", Breuner Palace, Vienna, 2000
* "Exhibition" in the Rubens House, Antwerp,30 September to31 December , 2005cite news
title = Sam Dillemans: Datum 30 september 2005- 31 december 2005
language = Dutch
publisher = Musea Antwerpen
url = http://museum.antwerpen.be/rubenshuis/agenda.html#sam
accessdate = 2008-03-05]Further reading
Books
* Bekkers, Ludo; Stegeman, Elly (1995). "Contemporary Painting of the Low Countries", Stichting Ons Erfdeel , ISBN 978-9070831738
* Thompson, Jon (2007). "Sam Dillemans - The authentic world", Ludion, ISBN 978-9055446926Other literature
* De Boeck, Hans & Moonen, Christoph, "Sam Dillemans- Het kunstwerk op zichzelf" (The art work on itself), in the "Catalogus Ithaka 2001", Kultuurraad der Leuvense studenten, 2001.nl icon
* November, Hans, "Sam Dillemans - De frustratie als motivatie" (The frustration as a motivation), in "Ibidem". nl iconReferences
External links
* [http://www.sam-dillemans.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.eastwestgallery.net/sam_dillemans.htm Dillemans at the East West Gallery, London]
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