Trait, Couleur, Volume

Gerard Bauwens is born in Ghent.
He received the second prize in the category “trait” for a watercolour and a charcoal.
The subject is not important, here it is figurative, what's important is just the line.
Whether it is with a few streaks of a brush in a simple way or on the contrary a charcoal generously and tumultuously, what is expressed is the talent, de security of the composition, the joy to draw and to paint as a drawing.
Such a mastery is surprising by a young man.
You almost believe to recover blueprints of whashed drawings of Rik Wouters or the power of Permeke. Gerard Bauwens enters in the line of the great Flemish.
Pierre Delrue.

Gerard Bauwens (30) shows us generally charcoal drawings.
His curling technique reminds us of the neo-impressionists like G. Seurat en P. Signac, but then without colour. The romantic couple and the female nude are the most principal subjects of the artist.
His drawings emit a pure intimacy and peace, a sensiorial attraction and a superb mode of movement.
Jos Murez.

Gerard Bauwens remains faithful to his curling technique in his drawings by representing the female nude. The positions of his models are very varied and the margin between the dark and light have in mind a dimensional sculptural design. They are one by one beautiful artworks.
Jos Murez.

A dream by Amon
Till February 20th, the artwork of two Flemish artists in Gallery Aymon, Korte Meer 4.
Gerard Bauwens, drawings and Arthur Vermeulen, sculptures, a curiously poetic charisma.
(as we can speak of the charisma of the photographs of David Hamilton). His drawings are exclusively in black and white. The faces, the body, the costume, the positions of sitting, standing or stretched out figures appear from small or large curls that grow together into volumes and surroundings and replace the lines. The curling drawing take over the place of the normal hatching to maintain light, shadow and depth, and are also comparable to some blurred artistic photographs.
Looking at this artworks from a distance, you will be touched by the talent, the classic and expressive portray, by the beauty of volume and by the lyrical taste of the artist for love ones and women whose state of mind is subscribed by the title.
On closer inspection we can understand the technique of liveliness and blurred sphere.

N.V.

The central theme in the work of Gerard Bauwens is the eternal figure of the women that he brings always in new variations.
Those who are familiar with his artwork will remember that recently he placed the woman in the ambiance of sun, sea, the beach and the enjoyment of the summer on that beach.
In the present exhibition he takes another variaton on the theme, i.e. The aesthetic of the female face, or even better the aesthetic hiding of the female look.

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The subject in the artwork of Gerard Bauwens is the human figure in all his aspects.
The beauty of a girls face, a woman's body inspires him to lyric designing, in which he brings together sensuality and tenderness and evades the pure physical by his inward inspiration.
His figures mostly do not look at the spectator, their look is turned aside or down what takes them to a motionless peace and timelessness. Less frequently he is drawing just one person but more diversity in positions.

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Interpretation
I will not give my personal interpretation, because
. impossible to replace the creator (the painter or artist) who put a signification in his artwork
. impossible to replace the spectator, who will give his interpretation subjectivily on the artwork of the artist.

Gerard Bauwens is a 35 years old artist from Ghent who slowly but certainly conquers his position between the Flemish artists.
He obtained several awards and since 1977 he had his individual exhibitions at the Gallery Aymon in Ghent, in the meantime this gallery disappeared.
He applies a remarkable technique, curling drawing, totally contradictoriny to the basics learned in the academy.

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Playful figures of Gerard Bauwens
Female on the beach
Ghent – Gerard Bauwens at Vyncke-Van Eyck : young female and the beach. It sounds rather banally.
Nevertheless he does not dissapear in the masses of fine subject painters. He has something of this own, a technique.
The realistic drawings are fascinating by the way he works with charcoal.
The volumes are set up of large and small curling lines, there are no contours, some places are white and only marked with a few lines. The result is an unstability, an intangible reservedness.

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