After De Keyser: New Visions

Coinciding with an exhibition of paintings by Raoul De Keyser (1930–2012) currently at David Zwirner Hong Kong, this online presentation places selected works by the late Belgian painter into dialogue with those of fifteen contemporary artists.

For most, De Keyser has been a direct influence. Others are longtime admirers of his work who wish to honor his legacy. De Keyser’s enduring impact on artists working today across the globe testifies to his continuous experimentation with painting over five decades.

Rebecca Morris

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Rebecca Morris

Untitled (#10-20), 2020

Oil on canvas

90 x 95 inches (228.6 x 241.3 cm)

Rebecca Morris in her studio, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Bortolami, New York. Photo by Lee Tyler Thompson

Rebecca Morris with Raoul De Keyser, 2010. Photo by Greg Kozaki

The work was inspired in part by an August 2010 visit to the home of fellow painter Raoul De Keyser, where a lunch table’s setting included a checkered blue tablecloth adorned with bright yellow calla lilies. Photo by Rebeccca Morris

“I first came to Raoul’s work through his Renaissance Society exhibition in 2001. A few months later, I flew to NYC to see his solo show at David Zwirner. These exhibitions had a huge impact on me.

Raoul’s painting ‘moves’ and his forms are like boiled-down information, which is why they have such gravitas despite their cursory ease and lightness of touch. They stay open and responsive to the viewer with an uncanny, suggestive power. His work continues to feel just as revelatory to me, so free and his own, and yet seemingly unassuming—which is ultimately quite radical.”

—Rebecca Morris

Raoul De Keyser

Three Scarecrows in a Gale, 2006

Oil on linen

35 3/8 x 49 1/4 inches (90 x 125 cm)

Matt Connors

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Matt Connors

It/s Stops /Stopped, 2020

Acrylic and graphite on canvas

36 x 26 inches (91.4 x 66 cm)

“I remember seeing Raoul De Keyser’s work for the first time at David Zwirner on Greene Street, in SoHo, just after moving to New York. At that time, for me, seeing those paintings felt like all the windows and doors of art making were suddenly opened up, and a giant gust of air was let in that I hadn’t really understood was possible before. There is such intense rigor and close seeing and thinking nestled inside of a real sense of active, aleatory looking that doesn’t necessarily have finding as its goal. De Keyser’s paintings acted on me as a kind of permission or a direct transmission of possibility in painting. The possibility that the looking, the hunting, the asking, was the thing.”

—Matt Connors

Matt Connors

Double Voided Panopticon (after Ponti), 2020

Watercolor, acrylic, and graphite on paper

9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (24.1 x 16.5 cm)
Framed: 19 1/2 x 16 inches (49.5 x 40.6 cm)

Matt Connors

Mural Object, 2020

Watercolor and graphite on paper

13 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (34.3 x 24.1 cm)
Framed: 23 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches (59.7 x 49.5 cm)

Raoul De Keyser

Surplace nr. 4, 2002

Oil on linen

39 1/2 x 49 1/4 inches (100.3 x 125.1 cm)

Luc Tuymans

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Luc Tuymans

Recherches, 1989

Oil on canvas

Three (3) parts
Part 1: 14 3/8 x 17 1/2 inches (36.5 x 44.5 cm)
Part 2: 14 1/4 x 15 inches (36.2 x 38.1 cm)
Part 3: 16 1/2 x 18 1/4 inches (46.4 x 41.9 cm)

Raoul De Keyser

The Chir
A Road
Acrobats
Mangrove, 2010

Oil and gesso on canvas mounted on wood panel

Four (4) parts
Part 1: 10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches (27 x 21.9 cm)
Part 2: 11 x 9 1/4 inches (27.9 x 23.5 cm)
Part 3: 11 3/4 x 9 5/8 inches (29.8 x 24.4 cm)
Part 4: 11 3/4 x 9 3/8 inches (29.8 x 23.8 cm)

“The work of Raoul De Keyser, although informal and abstract, comes across to me as extremely personal, highly specific, and fully based on Raoul’s own interiorized visual experience of the reality around him. In this sense, Raoul, for me, resonates as the painter for painters that Albert Marquet once was.”

—Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans with Raoul De Keyser, 2008

Installation view, Raoul De Keyser, Luc Tuymans, S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, 2001. Photo by Dirk Pauwels

Luc Tuymans

Reuntgen (X-Ray), 1998

Oil on paper mounted on board

15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (40 x 29.8 cm)
Framed: 20 3/4 x 16 3/8 inches (52.7 x 41.6 cm)

Luc Tuymans, Reuntgen (X-Ray), 1998 (detail)

Tomma Abts

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Tomma Abts

Untitled, 2020

Watercolor, acrylic, and collage on paper

7 1/8 x 4 7/8 inches (18 x 12.5 cm)

Tomma Abts, Untitled, 2020 (detail)

Tomma Abts

Untitled, 2020

Watercolor and collage on paper

7 1/8 x 4 7/8 inches (18 x 12.5 cm)

“I came across the paintings of Raoul De Keyser for the first time in 1993, on a visit to the exhibition Der zerbrochene Spiegel [The Broken Mirror] in the Deichtorhallen Hamburg. I can remember this encounter vividly, because I felt very touched by it. The wall with his works exuded an aura of unusual openness, which made me feel involved right away. I found myself in an immediate connection with what I saw.”

—Tomma Abts

Installation view, Der zerbrochene Spiegel: Positionen zur Malerei heute, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 1993 (the exhibition traveled to Deichtorhallen Hamburg). Photo by Helmut Tezak

Raoul De Keyser

Streng, 1987

Oil on canvas

19 x 12 inches (48.3 x 30.5 cm)

John Zurier

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

John Zurier

Keisetsu no Kou, 2019

Oil on linen

15 7/8 x 19 3/4 inches (40.3 x 50.2 cm)

“I love how De Keyser treats the surface of the canvas, which he keeps very open. And I love how he trails a brush across it, feathers a stroke into wet paint, re-paints a line, pats color with the brush, varies direction, scatters flecks of paint, puts down a dot of color like he’s shooting a hole through the canvas, and fills a shape without it feeling constrained. Everything is very specific. It’s very relaxed and it’s all very precise. I like that the paintings are indirect while being made in a direct manner. Also, I tend to like paintings that are arbitrary, anti-heroic—just the facts—because this feels real to me, honest, natural, and like life.”

—John Zurier

Raoul De Keyser

Untitled, 2006

Oil and charcoal on canvas

16 1/8 x 14 3/8 inches (41 x 36.5 cm)

“On a more fundamental level, De Keyser and Zurier share an approach to painting that, to use Zurier’s words, ‘make something of nothing.’ Both painters embrace debased effects: marks that appear randomly made, colors that border on questionable, and compositions that jar in their incompleteness. These effects serve to break down the constituent parts of painting, to engender an experience of raw material and form. Their intention, however, is not to stand upon the corpse of painting, but to resurrect it.”

—Lawrence Rinder, curator and museum director

John Zurier viewing Raoul De Keyser: Oeuvre, S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, 2018. Photo by Nina Zurier

A postcard from Raoul De Keyser to John Zurier, May 2, 2008

Visit the exhibition Raoul De Keyser to explore more works by the artist

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Harold Ancart

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Harold Ancart

Untitled, 2020

Oil stick and graphite on canvas in artist's frame

44 x 55 x 2 inches (111.8 x 139.7 x 5.1 cm)

“The abstractions often come from reality: the lines on the floor, the playgrounds, the sky … things that are completely harmless and banal, it shows that every single thing you look at can possibly be a good painting, if you’re a good painter.”

—Harold Ancart

Raoul De Keyser

Scene in Pistachio, 2007

Oil on canvas

26 3/4 x 16 5/8 inches (67.9 x 42.2 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 x 18 inches (71.8 x 45.7 cm)

“Raoul De Keyser is regarded as a so-called ‘painter’s painter,’ highly esteemed in particular by artist colleagues. When they speak about De Keyser, they frequently use the word ‘love.’ This may be because he created his works with almost tender devotion and was able to achieve surprisingly simple and not necessarily obvious solutions for altogether complex problems.”

—Philippe Van Cauteren, artistic director of S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, and Bernhard Maaz, general director of Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

Francis Alÿs

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Francis Alÿs

Untitled, 2010

Oil on wood panel in artist's frame

8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (21.6 x 16.5 cm)
Framed: 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (23.5 x 18.4 cm)

Francis Alÿs, Untitled, 2010 (detail)

“Raoul De Keyser’s painting could be understood as a visionary inspiration to think in terms of boundlessness—despite being aware that borders and limitations will continue to exist and be determined by knowledge, the body, or technology.”

—Bernhart Schwenk, curator of contemporary art at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Raoul De Keyser

Untitled, 2012

Gesso and watercolor on canvas mounted on wood panel

13 x 10 3/8 inches (32.8 x 26.3 cm)

Ridley Howard

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Ridley Howard

Red Frame Coast, 2020

Oil on linen

9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

A view of Ridley Howard’s studio, featuring his painting Red Frame Coast (2020)

A photo of a Raoul De Keyser catalogue open to the page illustrating his painting Oskar 10 (2005) in Ridley Howard’s studio

A paint palette in Ridley Howard’s studio

“De Keyser’s compositional games are frequently on my mind when working through ideas in sketches and collage. He is keenly aware of structure and traditions of design, but invites disruption of expectation. There is an embrace of flatness and implication of pictorial depth—seeing the rectangle as a void through which shapes move and frames within the picture hinting at further distances. His presentation is so straightforward, it’s almost unsettling.”

—Ridley Howard

Raoul De Keyser

Falling Balls
The Failed Juggle
No Title (8 Verticals/6), 2010

Oil, gesso, and charcoal on canvas

Three (3) parts
Part 1: 17 3/8 x 13 1/2 inches (44.1 x 34.3 cm)
Part 2: 17 3/8 x 13 1/2 inches (44.1 x 34.3 cm)
Part 3: 11 x 8 inches (27.9 x 20.3 cm)

Loïc Raguénès

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Loïc Raguénès

Petite sole jaune, 2020

Tempera on canvas

27 1/2 x 33 1/8 inches (69.8 x 84 cm)

“Since his death in 2012, De Keyser’s stature as a painter has only continued to grow, as has his influence on a younger generation of European painters.”

—Ulrich Loock, critic and curator

Installation view, Loïc Raguénès: Tulips, CLEARING, 2017. Photo © Julien Hayard. Courtesy the artist and CLEARING New York, Brussels

Raoul De Keyser

Retour I, 1999

Oil on canvas

43 1/2 x 66 inches (110.5 x 167.6 cm)

Installation view, Raoul De Keyser, David Zwirner, Hong Kong, 2021

Yuki Higashino

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Yuki Higashino

Notebook 5, 2020

Acrylic on Plexiglas

11 1/4 x 15 1/4 x 1/4 inches (28.6 x 38.7 x 0.6 cm)

“This desire to make a new type of abstract painting was triggered by my visit to the Raoul De Keyser retrospective in Munich last year. I was very much intrigued by his ability to create highly sophisticated modernist abstraction from his personal, everyday details. I want to explore the possibilities for such a mode of art making today, in a world where digital and physical worlds are interlaced, and sometimes collide.”

—Yuki Higashino

Installation view, Raoul De Keyser: Oeuvre, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2019, featuring De Keyser’s five-part work Notebook III (1973) at right. Photo by Dirk Pauwels

Raoul De Keyser, Notebook III, 1973

A drawing in Yuki Higashino’s sketchbook illustrating his idea for his Notebook series after a visit to Raoul De Keyser’s retrospective at Pinakothek der Moderne.

Raoul De Keyser

Airy (Vederlicht), 2010

Acrylic on linen

13 5/8 x 17 3/8 inches (34.6 x 44.1 cm)

Richard Aldrich

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Richard Aldrich

Glittering Gown of Moreau, 2019-2020

Oil, wax, and enamel on linen

82 x 52 3/4 inches (208.3 x 134 cm)

“I remember seeing an ad in a magazine for a Raoul De Keyser show at a moment when I felt like there was no point to painting. My understanding of what passed for painting then was either overly polished, large scale, or both. But seeing this small-scale, figuratively abstract painting—even just as an ad in a magazine—made so much sense to me. At the time, I was looking for artists that had similar ideas, and to see someone doing something that I liked, and in a much braver and better way, was beyond encouraging, and made it feel like it was all worthwhile.”

—Richard Aldrich

Raoul De Keyser

Hellepoort 8 (Gates of Hell 8), 1985

Oil on canvas

19 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (50 x 40 cm)

Chris Ofili

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Chris Ofili

Libido, 2017

Oil and charcoal on linen

122 1/4 x 78 3/4 inches (310.5 x 200 cm)

Chris Ofili, Libido, 2017 (detail)

“I live with Raoul’s work so I get to touch it, visually. His paintings exist in that place very few of us dare to go—the silent, the imperceptible.”

—Chris Ofili

Raoul De Keyser

Breaker, 2011

Oil and gesso on canvas mounted on panel

12 x 8 3/4 inches (30.5 x 22.2 cm)

Ilse D’Hollander

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Ilse D'Hollander

Untitled, 1995

Oil on canvas

13 3/4 x 14 7/8 inches (35 x 38 cm)

Raoul De Keyser, Study for Notch, 1988 (detail)

“[D’Hollander’s] close relationship with her mentor Raoul De Keyser, an abstract painter who favored a style that was at once intuitive, economical, and ever so subtly referential, preceded (and predicted) her gradual transition to a similar brand of abstraction around 1995.”

—Andrea Gyorody, curator

Raoul De Keyser

Study for Notch, 1988

Oil on canvas

21 5/8 x 19 3/4 inches (55 x 50 cm)
Framed: 22 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches (56.2 x 51.4 cm)

Lee Kit

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Lee Kit

Obsolete, 2020

Acrylic, emulsion paint, graphite and inkjet ink on wood panel

19 7/8 x 15 7/8 inches (50.6 x 40.6 cm)

Raoul De Keyser

Sansodor, 2012

Gesso, watercolor, and chalk on canvas mounted on wood panel

11 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches (30.1 x 22.5 cm)

Raoul De Keyser

Underskirt, 2012

Oil, watercolor, and gesso on canvas mounted on wood panel

8 3/8 x 3 5/8 inches (21.3 x 9.2 cm)

“To me, Raoul De Keyser’s works are like looking at something unspokenly treasurable, either something physically existing or simply something fleeing one’s sight, in a blink of an eye. Here, they are being depicted according to their pace, like something ordinary yet intimate. Something we almost missed and keep looking for every day. The trivial essence of a muted elegance embedded in one’s breath.”

—Lee Kit

Raoul De Keyser

Under, 2012

Oil on canvas mounted on wood panel

3 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches (9.5 x 20 cm)

Installation view, Raoul De Keyser: Drift, David Zwirner, New York, 2016, featuring works from The Last Wall

Raoul De Keyser in his studio with a view of works from The Last Wall, 2012. Photo by Jef Van Eynde

Fahd Burki

AND RAOUL DE KEYSER

Fahd Burki

Minutes before I fall asleep, 2019

Acrylic on canvas and wood

39 1/2 x 30 3/8 inches (100.2 x 77 cm)

“My admiration of his practice comes from what I can only describe as the honesty with which he painted. There is a sense of immediacy but also of presenting his thoughts exactly as he thought them, no filtering or embellishment. I find that in his work every brushstroke is purposeful.”

—Fahd Burki

Raoul De Keyser

Bricolage, 2012

Gesso, ink, and oil on canvas mounted on wood panel

7 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches (19 x 26 cm)

Fahd Burki, Pencil drawing 2, 2020 (detail)

Fahd Burki

Pencil drawing 2, 2020

Colored pencil on paper

19 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (50.2 x 37.6 cm)

Raoul De Keyser, 2009. Photo by Christophe Vander Eecken

Inquire on works from New Visions: After Raoul De Keyser

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New Visions: After De Keyser

Rebecca Morris

Raoul De Keyser

Matt Connors

Matt Connors

Matt Connors

Raoul De Keyser

Luc Tuymans

Raoul De Keyser

Luc Tuymans

Tomma Abts

Tomma Abts

Raoul De Keyser

John Zurier

Raoul De Keyser

Harold Ancart

Raoul De Keyser

Francis Alÿs

Raoul De Keyser

Ridley Howard

Raoul De Keyser

Loïc Raguénès

Raoul De Keyser

Yuki Higashino

Raoul De Keyser

Richard Aldrich

Raoul De Keyser

Chris Ofili

Raoul De Keyser

Ilse D'Hollander

Raoul De Keyser

Lee Kit

Raoul De Keyser

Raoul De Keyser

Raoul De Keyser

Fahd Burki

Raoul De Keyser

Fahd Burki