Jan De Vliegher. Versailles

In Jan De Vliegher's works, the composition detaches itself from the motif. His brushwork creates a dynamic liveliness, contrasting colors form soft shapes and vibrating outlines. While the original motif can step into the background, the arrangement and the reciprocal effect of the color surfaces become the actual theme.

His new series of works is dedicated to the splendor and architecture of the Palace of Versailles, the residence of the kings, which became the center of French power under Louis XIV. Jan De Vliegher is particularly fascinated by the high ceilings of the residence, the spacious rooms and the precious materials such as gold, marble and silk used in the interiors. In the end, even the tourists and their clothing become a compositional element. The paintings of the Italian painter Paolo Veronese come to mind.

Pure and mixed colors as well as the careful use of neon colors in particular create an intense luminosity in the current series of works. Traditionally, explains Jan De Vliegher, one only paints within the color scale of (paper) white and (deep) black. “Neon colors have the ability to glow brighter than white, so mixing small amounts of these neon pigments with pure white pigment makes the white pigment ‘glow’.” The neon pigments give an enhanced vibrancy to the golden, shiny materials or the bright clothing of the visitors in particular. They increase the contrast and the glow of the brightest areas in the painting. This phenomenon is comparable to the extension of the traditional “Standard Dynamic Range” (SDR) to the “High Dynamic Range” (HDR) setting, as we know it from photography and television.