Leo JACOBS

1951

Leo Jacobs (Herentals – 1951) has been active as an artist since the late 1970s. Over the years, his paintings have been labeled as “Action Painting,” “Abstract Expressionism”, “Lyrical Abstract”,  “Informal and Gestural”…

In recent years, however, his painting has taken a new turn, the quest is without end. Jacobs’ recent paintings are built layer upon layer. They are abstract, lyrical fields of color, which occasionally have a landscape connotation. It is only when one looks at them for a long time that they release themselves and you participate in the artist’s quest. Then you see the marks of the instruments used to apply the paint, as well as those of sanding and wiping away, layer upon layer. The painter’s train of thought is traversed by the growth process that manifests itself during the realization of the painting. There are the deliberately executed operations, but also the unforeseen effects created in confrontation with the material resources of the medium and through the effects provoked by the process of creation.

These effects depend for their survival on the artist’s judgment and his choice to build on them or resolutely take a different path. Up close, one notices the tingle of the flecks of color and can see how the colors blend with each other or, on the contrary, maintain their individuality. There is always the layering, in which the colors understand each other layer by layer and merge into an underlying structure resulting in the “painting.”