JACQY DUVAL

The oeuvre of the artistic duo Jacqueline Dehond (°1965) and Koenraad Uyttendaele (°1962) has catapulted me back in time. In particular to the earliest period of my conscious awareness of visual art and aesthetic form, to a framed copy of Victor Vasarely.

You view abstraction and think mainly of well-planned constructions of forms, colours, light and shadow, of meticulous preparation and choice of materials, you spontaneously

make associations with architecture, structure, design and graphics. The link to Hard Edge, the art movement that is mainly characterized by strongly contrasting surfaces in primary colours, is obvious.

But you probably don’t immediately think of the many uncertainties that often occur before a creation emerges. That colours originate from pigments mixed with glue, that 

beneath the abstraction, hearts beat with love and immense respect for ancient cultures, for miniature drawings from the East, where a strong sense of what in architecture is referred to as “the golden section” can be found. Etcetera. And once you realise all of this, it’s not surprising that in essays about and/or conversations with the duo Jacquy duVal, names like Matisse, Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Basquiat, Brancusi and Morandi are often mentioned. As a matter of fact, I also share their appreciation for these outstanding talents.