Gilbert DECOCK

1928 – 2007

With a very limited number of basic geometric forms, Gilbert Decock created an unusually rich and varied oeuvre over the course of forty-five years.

In the growth and search period, to be situated from 1960 to 1967, the works show the characteristics of parataxis: separateness of the constituent parts, asymmetrical arrangement, flatness, non-axial construction, juxtaposition of the parts, left-right movement for the reading eye.

At the end of the 1960s, the paratactic mode of composition definitively gives way to a strict, simple, powerful, syntactic imagery. The supporting and defining basic forms are centrally located in the square of the canvas. The centers of circle and square coincide, creating a superposition that demands a modified reading: from the center and front to the underlying layers. Besides the multilayeredness of these center point compositions, the grand, quiet monumentality, result of synthesis, stability, symmetry, axial construction, reduction of color to white, black and strict intermediate tones of gray and brown, strikes. Sometimes Decock juxtaposed circle and square in diptychs as equal forces, elsewhere he united them in a single composition into an intimate conjunction.

The work of the 1980s represents a new phase in the artist’s pictorial development. The still dominant basic forms of circle and square are cut into horizontal strips, bands and strips of various widths and colors. Sometimes the circle or square is also cut in the middle and both parts are pushed apart. After the utter compositional and harmonious unity of the paintings and sculptures from the period 1968-1979, this tendency to cut up, divide and oppose does strike the viewer very strongly.

The period 1990-2007 represents a high point in the body of work as a whole, brought about by the older artist who managed to integrate the playful into his compositions in a surprising way. For a playful spirit clearly comes to the fore in these paintings, in which symmetry has given way to more agile, loose and imaginative construction, in which omissions, tessellations, fragmentations, tilings and line breaks fulfill important functions. Partly due to the use of color -between the dark tones sometimes surfaces light up in lively yellow, blue or red- the work acquired an unusual youthfulness, freshness, spontaneity and open-mindedness.

Jaak Fontier – Art critic AICA

August 2008