°1938 Brugge, Belgium Lives and works in Tielt, BE.
Few are the painters who, like De Sauter, succeed in pushing painting as far beyond itself while remaining faithful to the painter’s traditional gestures: applying a coloured medium to a ground. Because his objects’ implicit subject – the perfect distance – is relational and contingent, they act as architectural sculptures and choreographies of space, endlessly renegotiating their relation to us, themselves, and their environment.
His work is collected by institutions such as M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens (Sint-Martens-Latem), Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Belgium), De Bond (Bruges), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), and Groeningenmuseum Bruges.
Willy De Sauter is represented by Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin), Loom Gallery (Milan), and Galerie Ramakers (Den Haag).
Credit cover image M HKA - Clinckx
www.willydesauter.be
Selected Solo Exhibitions
M HKA, Antwerp, BE
Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE Hilde Vandaele Gallery, Watou, BE
'De Perfecte Afstand', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE 'Works', Loom Gallery, Milaan, IT
'Meeting between color fields', Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, DE
'Bauhaus and Beyond‘, Galerie Catalijn Ramakers, Den Haag, NL Galerie Christoph Albbühl, Solothurn, CH
Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke, BE 'Untitled Paintings', Hilde Vandaele Gallery, Watou, BE
Collectiepresentatie en recent werk, Groeningemuseum, Brugge, BE 'Untitled', Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke, BE 'Een keuze uit het oeuvre', Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag, NL
Lempertz, Brussels, BE
'Untitled-Color', Galerie Ronny van de Velde, Knokke, BE
Museum Dhondt – Dhaenens, Deurle, BE Bank Delen, Ghent, BE
Huize St. Bonaventura, Ghent, BE Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL
Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL
Galerie CD, Tielt, BE
Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE Be-Part, Waregem, BE
Roodstop, Oudenaarde, BE
Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE 'Spaces', Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL
'Willy De Sauter – Christian Kieckens', White-out Studio, Knokke, BE Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL De Bond, Brugge, BE
Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, BE Orpheus Instituut, Ghent, BE
CCNOA, Brussels, BE Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL
Galerie C.D, Tielt, BE
MuHKA, Antwerp, BE Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL White – Out Studio, Knokke, BE
Phoebus, Rotterdam, NL Galerie De Gryse, Tielt, BE
Margeret Harvey Gallery, St. Albans London, UK
Business Faculty, Brussels, BE Battersea Art Center, Londen, UK
Plateau, Brussels, BE Galerie Patrick De Brock, Knokke, BE
De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, NL Galerie Patrick De Brock, Antwerp, BE
Plateau, Brussels, BE
Galerie Patrick De Brock, Antwerp, BE
Vereniging voor het Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, BE Haus Gospert, Eupen, BE
De Lege Ruimte, Brugge, BE
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, BE
Gallery Richard Foncke, Ghent, BE
Galerie Declercq, Knokke, BE
Stichting Veranneman, Kruishoutem, BE I.C.C. Antwerp, BE
Galerie Aksent, Waregem, BE
Selected Group Exhibitions
BRAFA Art Fair, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Brussels, BE 'These Circumstances', Fondation CAB, Antwerp, BE 'It's all right, don't think twice', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE
Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ramakers, Rotterdam, NL
'Works', Loom Gallery, Milan, IT
'L'heure bleue', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, BE 'Implicit Movement', Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Nieuw Zuid, Antwerp, BE 'Implicit Movement', Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, DE
‘Looking at the world Trough Rose Colored Glasses‘, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE BRAFA Art Fair Brussels, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE BRAFA Art Fair Brussels, Koning Boudewijnstichting, Pas Foundation, Hasselt, BE ‘The Gulf Between‘, Cultuurhuis De Warande, Turnhout, BE Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag, NL Art Rotterdam, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE ‘De la tranquillité / van het verpozen‘, Emergent, Veurne, BE ‘De la tranquillité / van het verpozen‘, Centre Culturel, BE ‘The Bare Necessity- Charlotte Posenenske – Guy Mees – Willy De Sauter‘, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE ‘Bauhaus and Beyond‘, Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag, NL Art Basel, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, DE
‘Backstage‘, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin, DE Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag, NL Diva Antwerpen, Shanghai Natural History Museum, Shanghai, CHN ‘Backstage‘, Galerie Thomas Rehbein, Cologne, DE Art Basel, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Basel, CH ‘Kleur, lijn en vorm', Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke, BE ‘If you need guidance...', Galerie Mathias Güntner, Hamburg, DE ‘Soft ?‘, Galerie Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, BE Pan Amsterdam, Galerie Ramakers, Amsterdam, NL ‘Verschil maken', Stedelijke Kunstacademie, Tielt, BE ‘Selection VII’, Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke, BE
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 1983 pastel on paper 200 x 100 cm (198322)
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 1983 pastel on paper 200 x 100 cm (198325)
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 1983 pastel on paper 200 x 100 cm (198316)
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 1983 pastel on paper 200 x 100 cm (198313)
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 2021 pigment, chalk, panel 45 x 30 cm (202103)
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 2020 pigment, chalk, wood 60 x 45 cm (202007)
Willy De Sauter Untitled chalk on wood, 55 x 45 cm
Willy De Sauter Untitiled, 2018 chalk and pigment on wood 45 x 30 cm
Willy De Sauter Untitled, 1983 copper 52 x 45 cm
Willy De Sauter (°1938)
Willy De Sauter’s artistic practice is a continuation of a rich tradition according to which art is the vehicle for an abstract representation of reality. His artistic vocabulary could be characterized as a thorough abstraction of forms and structures that can be found back in both nature and in culture, more specifically in architecture.
The close observation of buildings, monuments and even photographs are often starting points for de Sauter’s plastic transposition of an existing form into an abstract representation. His works and their presentation refer to architectural history and to the artistic urge to represent the very essence of reality. In de Sauter’s austere oeuvre, places are reduced to non-places. Associations with philosophy, visual art, and architecture are fused into one general and open focus on culture.
While his early works were mainly composed of consistent repetitions of line patterns, he has, from the 1990s onward, focused on the realization of monochrome chalk paintings and objects.
Although his work appears very minimalist in style, Willy De Sauter invests much time and labor in its meticulous production process.