The first monograph of color drawings by Belgian artist Rinus Van de
Velde Rinus Van de Velde (1983) has built up an extensive oeuvre of
drawings, sculptures, installations and film. He is best known for his
monumental works in charcoal. At the start of his career, however, he
also created small drawings in color pencil, a technique he reintroduced
into his work in 2018. With these drawings, Van de Velde returns to a
very classical and direct style of draughtsmanship with color pencil on
paper. His technical qualities receive optimal expression, and the work
is often characterized by a high degree of realism. Van de Velde chooses
his visual material from a variety of sources, ranging from images from
books, film stills and his own photographic material, to home-made
staged scenes and characters that are reduced to a single image. In the
process he explores the meaning of an image and how the existing meaning
can evolve within an alternative narrative. He plays a game in which he
constantly hovers between reality and fiction. Real events are
transformed into a carefully constructed alternative universe in which
every existing image still has complete freedom. This is the first
publication in which the color drawings of Rinus Van de Velde are
collected and interpreted.
