Sam Dillemans (born 17 January 1965) is a Belgian painter.

Background

Sam Dillemans was born in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. After high school, Dillemans studied at several academies in Belgium and abroad. He obtained the French Higher National diploma of Plastic Expression Option Art. For some years he has been teaching drawing and painting at the

Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp () is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, painter to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Don Juan of ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

and was a guest professor at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts of Flanders, also in Antwerp. He now lives and works in

Borgerhout Borgerhout () is the smallest districts of Antwerp, district of Antwerp, Belgium. , the district housed 45,769 inhabitants on 3.93 km². It was an independent municipality until January 1983. The postal area code for Borgerhout is 2140. Geography ...

. A documentary about his work and life, ''The Madness of Detail'', was entered in the "Creative Documentary" category at the 21st International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes held in

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...

, France in January 2008. and won the ''FIPA d'Or for best creative documentary''.

Work

The work of Dillemans has deep roots in European painting tradition. According to Dillemans, painters such as

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( ; ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

are not artists of the past, but artists of today and they continue inspire him in his work. To Dillemans it does not matter ''when'' something was painted, but ''how'' it was painted. The method of painting, how paint and brushes are used to seek or construct a striking image, is timeless. His work is a quest to find the visual equivalent for the complex interaction between imagination, feeling, consciousness and the painting technique itself. To achieve this goal, Dillemans says, painters have a difficult and at times tedious task to fulfill. They cannot not be satisfied with the clear perception of reality as an evidence of truth, but must try harder to understand more fully their subjects. With thick strokes and an impressive relief on the surface, Dillemans's style contains a refined form of elasticity and plasticity. The process of creation is an important aspect in his work. During this process the paintings appear at times to become gradually more abstract. Dillemans is convinced that a painting only has a chance to take form once the paint begins to take on a life of its own. This style is more firmly rooted in the European tradition rather than that of abstract expressionism and although the strokes become autonomous and follow their own logic, the final form stills holds true to a recognizable and even classical form. Modernism, classicism and academism seem to come together in his work without any contradiction among the styles.

World vision

Dillemans's world vision is rather sombre. He works intensively and there is much action and movement within his work and in this way his painting becomes an intense occupation. Many painters of the past were also occupied by this same endeavour. Dillemans states that, "a painter like Ingres drew on his right to be taken seriously. In his case it is about a beautiful aristocratic seriousness which has nothing to do with self glorification. Proof of this is that he was still copying Michelangelo at the age of sixty five."

Stages

Because of his prolific work and creativity, Dillemans's output has already passed through several different stages. During the period from 1993 to 2000, he did an intensive study of the female portrait, at times using his wife as a model. A second period from 2000 to 2003 was a period of reflection during which he studied the old masters. This phase would also influence his later work. From 2003 onward he began a pugilistic painting project with numerous boxing scenes in which a rhythmical movement between individual figures and the presence of physical bodies are in constant dialogue with the baroque. He also began a series of portraits of well known figures who he admires including Ingres and the Belgian cyclist

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), known as Eddy Merckx (, ), is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an ...

References

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