M HKA Ensembles

Drawing, 126 x 60 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.

The work of Ado Hamelryck is minimal, but not minimalist.  His oeuvre arises out of a process of limitation and reduction.  In his paintings, drawings and reliefs, the artist restricts himself to the repeated application of black traces on a support.  Hidden behind his apparently monochrome works, is a surprising realm of texture and tonality.  

Each of Hamelryck's pieces is black and mysterious.  These works also exercise a quite particular effect on the viewer.  In Western society, science's influence has had a generally demystifying effect.  By way of opposition to this notion, Hamelryck underscores the importance of his art's enigmatic nature.

For Ado Hamelryck, black is the most beautiful and stimulating of colours.  Like Van Gogh, he refers to 27 sorts of black that a Rembrandt, Hals or Velázquez would have used.  Matisse famously said: “Black is a colour.”  And Hamelryck also considers himself a colourist.  He renders material black, and works assiduously with incidence of light and reflection.

In Untitled we see how graphite is applied to chalkboard paint.  With subtle relief-work, repetition and the play of light and shadow, this piece goes beyond minimalism - a sort of enigmatic script comes into being.  The wealth of tonality and texture, the endless possibilities and the manifold beauties of black, and the mystery behind the diversity of blacks come strongly to the fore in this work.