Bert De Beul (1961)
Bert De Beul (1961) has developed a very personal and innovative style. He makes small, concealing canvases in several layers, where he paints his own memories, as it were. He holds different views on painting than Tuymans: opposed to the highly communicative vision of the latter is the silence of De Beul; against the view of the large, international world the view of the small, private environment; as opposed to extrovert self-consciousness, introvert modesty.
De Beul likes to take pictures of interiors, houses, streets and of people who sometimes move through it. He then makes a painting out of those photos, so an image of an image. Fragmentation and framing are important, just like perspective. A veil appears to hang over the work, as if you are looking at the (small) world through a misty window. There seems to be little or nothing to be seen on De Beul's canvases, and yet the viewer gets a strong sense of recognition and familiarity, which at the same time sometimes causes discomfort, even anxiety.