This obscure object: Johan Clarysse

Johan Clarysse culls and paints images, unbiased, guided only by their potential for leaving a lasting impression on the viewer. To this end, imagery is assessed for its tension and contrasts, for its ability or inability to convey meaning, as well as for the presence of any unsettling enigmas. That is, drama without any restrictive narrative. Tension without any apparent curve. Clarysse’s work stands out because of its unique language, the use of soft, muted colours, its existential themes and the numerous references to the world of film, art, literature and psychology.

As Clarysse himself puts it: “Because my paintings often revolve around psychological tipping points and carry an emotional charge, I choose sober, non-­primary colours. In this way, I avoid overstatement. A quality that, of course, is also decisive when writing poetry. […] I distance myself from so-called primary colours, make a plea for what I call ‘metropolitan colours, colours from the slums, shrouded in shabby coats and housed in damp rooms’. Give me Naples yellow, grey dog, sizzling ore, kinky red or Cinderella pink…” This Obscure Object presents an overview of both paintings and drawings from the last decade and seamlessly picks up where his last book Walden & other suspicions ended.