Postcard-sized Paintings
Acrylics on paper/cardboard, 2001-2016 15x10 cm (Passepartouts: 24x18cm) Text wrap up Acrylics+Texts by Gian Merlevede |
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About the postcard-sized paintings - takeaway value
Belgian-Swiss artist Gian Michael Merlevede (pronounce: Merr-ləveːdə) was born in 1973. Raised in Flanders, he received training as a graphic designer and illustrator at St. Lucas School of Art Antwerp from 1991 to 1995. After that, he studied Art Sciences at Ghent University (1995–2000) and wrote his master’s thesis on the Austrian Catholic art historian Hans Sedlmayr’s 1948 critique on modern art, Verlust der Mitte (published in English as Art in Crisis in 1955). Gian's thesis compares the viewpoints of Sedlmayr with those of Calvinistic Reformed art philosophers. Then, from 2001 to 2002, Gian studied both secular and Christian art philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.
At age thirty he settled back in Belgium and began a new season as an artist, at last shaking off the heavy yoke of perfectionism. For a while, he deliberately set aside (for the most part), his complex geometrical style, breaking loose from an overbearing focus on painterly and symbolic narration. Longing for additional artistic relaxation, he began creating a more diversified body of work, not only altering his painterly technique but also letting in more spontaneity and light-heartedness. Allowing his paintings to be more open-ended and not necessarily a response to big questions of truth and culture.
This change of course helped Gian to cast off some of the burdens of a way too idealistic mindset. As he needed to consede that all his high-minded, even noble longings as an artist to influence western art culture for the better, would merely amount in extended frustration and burn-out, given the fact that the people and their chosen leaders are indeed free to willfully ignore God's good standards - and for that matter also their good conscience - if they choose so. Clearly "totally" free, but nevertheless fully responsible as we all will reap what we sow. As for Gian, he decided to back off from a false sense of over-responsibility in sociocultural respect. Downsizing his cultural efforts, though never abandoning the joy of planting trees! In this manner, Gian slowly but steadily headed toward a more joyful and restful take on life.
Some of Gian's newfound attitude toward playful improvisation is manifest in his “postcard” series, which consists of hundreds of postcard-sized paintings. These acrylic paintings demonstrate Gian’s reliance on intuition rather than mere intellect and his willingness to go where his spirit leads him, even if it’s to someplace unforeseen. As he paints nowadays, he particularly enjoys this feel of carefree maturity and proven craftmanship. And when he finishes up, he is often overcome by a deep sense of gratitude. For him, days completely void of wonderment are few. He cannot help but feel overwhelmed and awestruck by the incredible meticulous design and endless mystery of God's personalized creation of heaven and earth, which will surely unfold forever.
This same openness to surprise, to mystery, may be present in many art viewers too. Gian trusts his paintings to unfold their potential in the long term. Their potential to slightly shift perspectives in the eye (or even mind) of the beholder. To unexpectedly so - especially wenn all initial noise has quieted down - elicit those smallest aha-moments. For that matter - possibly so, after living over longer periods of time with a painting up close, even with the dust already settled thickly on it, so to speak - for that matter, it may be just the case that all of a sudden some kind of insightful shift of gaze crosses the viewer’s mind. And thus, this or that way, simply adjusting any stale interpretation of it. Jolting the beholder out of a consolidated mindset fallen silent. A stale mindset all of a sudden coming to see the "settled painting" totally and even shockingly afresh. I'm talking about those rare moments when a familiar painting suddenly freshly sheds off a whole new light unto our sightless gaze. Then we are reminded with delight, that the human heart has pathways of knowing and finding out, far more astounding than the cascade of brain waves and bodily senses could be expected to come up with in their own accord. Sometimes we really do wake up to something. Fully taken by suprise, not in the least expecting such a thought or impression to even ever surface within us! When that happens, we know, it wasn´t mere confluent cerebral knowledge alone that flashed and stunned us there.
These kinds of refreshing realizations may teach us anew, that somehow - and for starters - providence is at work. We’re taken aback by a sudden insight. Realizing it's not of our own making. Rather it’s all about inspired perception or a beamy thought crossing our minds. True artistry has a way of making just these moments of insight possible. They never occur at our beck and call, nor do they ever announce their arrival. They rather seem to emerge from the depths of the human heart. When this happens, it’s a slightly thrilling experience. It defies our illusions of control. At best, I guess, something holy is revealed to us, and with that, our receptivity to the Creator’s secretive ways might be elicited and increased.
Belgian-Swiss artist Gian Michael Merlevede (pronounce: Merr-ləveːdə) was born in 1973. Raised in Flanders, he received training as a graphic designer and illustrator at St. Lucas School of Art Antwerp from 1991 to 1995. After that, he studied Art Sciences at Ghent University (1995–2000) and wrote his master’s thesis on the Austrian Catholic art historian Hans Sedlmayr’s 1948 critique on modern art, Verlust der Mitte (published in English as Art in Crisis in 1955). Gian's thesis compares the viewpoints of Sedlmayr with those of Calvinistic Reformed art philosophers. Then, from 2001 to 2002, Gian studied both secular and Christian art philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.
At age thirty he settled back in Belgium and began a new season as an artist, at last shaking off the heavy yoke of perfectionism. For a while, he deliberately set aside (for the most part), his complex geometrical style, breaking loose from an overbearing focus on painterly and symbolic narration. Longing for additional artistic relaxation, he began creating a more diversified body of work, not only altering his painterly technique but also letting in more spontaneity and light-heartedness. Allowing his paintings to be more open-ended and not necessarily a response to big questions of truth and culture.
This change of course helped Gian to cast off some of the burdens of a way too idealistic mindset. As he needed to consede that all his high-minded, even noble longings as an artist to influence western art culture for the better, would merely amount in extended frustration and burn-out, given the fact that the people and their chosen leaders are indeed free to willfully ignore God's good standards - and for that matter also their good conscience - if they choose so. Clearly "totally" free, but nevertheless fully responsible as we all will reap what we sow. As for Gian, he decided to back off from a false sense of over-responsibility in sociocultural respect. Downsizing his cultural efforts, though never abandoning the joy of planting trees! In this manner, Gian slowly but steadily headed toward a more joyful and restful take on life.
Some of Gian's newfound attitude toward playful improvisation is manifest in his “postcard” series, which consists of hundreds of postcard-sized paintings. These acrylic paintings demonstrate Gian’s reliance on intuition rather than mere intellect and his willingness to go where his spirit leads him, even if it’s to someplace unforeseen. As he paints nowadays, he particularly enjoys this feel of carefree maturity and proven craftmanship. And when he finishes up, he is often overcome by a deep sense of gratitude. For him, days completely void of wonderment are few. He cannot help but feel overwhelmed and awestruck by the incredible meticulous design and endless mystery of God's personalized creation of heaven and earth, which will surely unfold forever.
This same openness to surprise, to mystery, may be present in many art viewers too. Gian trusts his paintings to unfold their potential in the long term. Their potential to slightly shift perspectives in the eye (or even mind) of the beholder. To unexpectedly so - especially wenn all initial noise has quieted down - elicit those smallest aha-moments. For that matter - possibly so, after living over longer periods of time with a painting up close, even with the dust already settled thickly on it, so to speak - for that matter, it may be just the case that all of a sudden some kind of insightful shift of gaze crosses the viewer’s mind. And thus, this or that way, simply adjusting any stale interpretation of it. Jolting the beholder out of a consolidated mindset fallen silent. A stale mindset all of a sudden coming to see the "settled painting" totally and even shockingly afresh. I'm talking about those rare moments when a familiar painting suddenly freshly sheds off a whole new light unto our sightless gaze. Then we are reminded with delight, that the human heart has pathways of knowing and finding out, far more astounding than the cascade of brain waves and bodily senses could be expected to come up with in their own accord. Sometimes we really do wake up to something. Fully taken by suprise, not in the least expecting such a thought or impression to even ever surface within us! When that happens, we know, it wasn´t mere confluent cerebral knowledge alone that flashed and stunned us there.
These kinds of refreshing realizations may teach us anew, that somehow - and for starters - providence is at work. We’re taken aback by a sudden insight. Realizing it's not of our own making. Rather it’s all about inspired perception or a beamy thought crossing our minds. True artistry has a way of making just these moments of insight possible. They never occur at our beck and call, nor do they ever announce their arrival. They rather seem to emerge from the depths of the human heart. When this happens, it’s a slightly thrilling experience. It defies our illusions of control. At best, I guess, something holy is revealed to us, and with that, our receptivity to the Creator’s secretive ways might be elicited and increased.
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Since 2009 Gian is happily married to a wonderful woman who is an accomplished visual artist herself. Together they live and work in an old, spacious parsonage from 1734 in rural eastern Germany. He continues creating postcard-size paintings - calling out his playful inner child and riding the waves of his searching soul. He hopes to ever stay open to all the butterfly-like flashes of God's creation, and to come across shadowy visions of the Unseeable yet Personal One.
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