R/Margeurite (1992)
Within Walter Swennen’s idiosyncratic paintings, figures, shapes, and words are freely and spontaneously associated to produce compositions that cannot be reduced to a signature style. Taking his interest in philosophy, poetry, and psychoanalysis as a point of departure, the artist produces images that wrestle with problems unique to the medium of painting, rather than serve as a pictorial representation of a concept or an experience.
R/Marguerite supplies an amusing interplay between the abstract and the concrete by placing the letter “R” next to a single marguerite flower. While the letter points to the conceptual, non-representational dimensions of the human language, the marguerite flower symbolizes tangible elements that could be easily encountered in the real world. By juxtaposing these oppositional aspects of the human experience within a single canvas, the artist suggests the potential of painting as a means to encompass both linguistic and pictorial dimensions without prioritizing one over the other.
