Ilse D’Hollander – So Much Achieved in So Little Time
The Belgian artist Ilse D’Hollander (1968–1997) spent less than 30 years living in this world. By the time she graduated from the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, St. Lucas, Ghent, in 1991, it was clear that she was a consummate draughtswoman.
In 1980, D’Hollander decided to devote herself exclusively to painting. Painting was a deeply unfashionable discipline at the time, but D’Hollander was summoned by the slow medium of painting before she became a teenager, and that for the rest of her short life she never wavered in her commitment.
The directness of drawing, and of drawing in paint, was D’Hollander’s ideal. She explained, “A painting comes into being when ideas and the act of painting coincide.”
In this statement, one can see what she shares with the Belgian abstract artist Raoul De Keyser and the American Abstract Expressionists, particularly Willem de Kooning and others committed to drawing in paint.
At the same time, D’Hollander wanted to be as direct as artists of previous generations working in Minimalism and Color Field painting without following in any of their footsteps. Nor was she interested in the flamboyance of the artists associated with Neo Expressionism and “the return to painting” that dominated the international art world’s attention for much of the 1980s.
Given the painterly achievements of the postwar generation that emerged in America and Europe during the 1950s and ’60s, and of European artists as distinct as Nicolas de Staël, Eugene Leroy, and René Daniëls, D’Hollander’s rejection of abstraction and figuration as an either/or premise in favor of a path that embraced both possibilities, without quite becoming either, is admirable.
Given the painterly achievements of the postwar generation that emerged in America and Europe during the 1950s and ’60s, and of European artists as distinct as Nicolas de Staël, Eugene Leroy, and René Daniëls, D’Hollander’s rejection of abstraction and figuration as an either/or premise in favor of a path that embraced both possibilities, without quite becoming either, is admirable.
Ilse d’Hollander (1968 - 1997)
Untitled
Oil on canvas
54 x 44 cm
21.2 x 17.3 in
Executed in 1996
Lucas de Bruycker, Gent
Private Collection, The Netherlands
Literature:
Ilse d'Hollander - Untitled
Museum M., Leuven/Hannibal, Veurne, 2013
(Image, p. 209)
EUR
35,000
Untitled
Oil on canvas
54 x 44 cm
21.2 x 17.3 in
Executed in 1996
Lucas de Bruycker, Gent
Private Collection, The Netherlands
Literature:
Ilse d'Hollander - Untitled
Museum M., Leuven/Hannibal, Veurne, 2013
(Image, p. 209)
EUR
35,000
Ilse D’Hollander’s paintings are one enormous tension field.
D’Hollander also seems to have never met a hue that she could not use, something that is most prominent in her use of green. Her range of greens suggests that her paintings originated in the landscape. However, it is impossible to trace the work back to a specific source or event. This ambiguity is what distinguishes D’Hollander from De Keyser and Luc Tuymans, with whom she has been compared.
Born in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, in 1968, Ilse D’Hollander graduated from the Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, in 1988, and the Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten, St Lucas, Gent, in 1991. During her lifetime, a solo exhibition was held at In Den Bouw, Kalken, in 1996. Posthumous solo exhibitions have been held at White House Gallery, Leuven (2017); ADAA The Art Show, presented by Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2017); Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2016); FRAC Auvergne, ClermontFerrand (2016); Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin (2014); Sofie Van de Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2014); M Museum, Leuven (2013); Geukens & De Vil, Antwerp (2010); Lucas De Bruycker Gallery, Ghent (2004). Her work has been included in the group exhibitions EDIFICE, COMPLEX, VISIONARY, STRUCTURE, Sean Kelly, New York (2018); Artemisia, Galerie Albert Baronian, Brussels (2017); In the Picture, Galerie Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp (2017); Geometric Abstractions, G262 Sofie Van De Velde Gallery, Antwerp (2015); Works on Paper, David Zwirner Gallery, New York (2014); Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf (2013); Museum DhondtDhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2009); Stille Schilders, Caermersklooster, Gent (2003; cat); Aula Art, Ghent (1996); Urmel Gallery, Gent (1994). Works by Ilse D’Hollander are in various international collections including Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium and FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.