Walter Swennen (1946, Brussels) can be considered as one of the most influential artists of Belgium. Because his paintings are constructed out of different pictorial layers, you need to look at his work in more than one way to see the diversity of levels enclosed in it. Abstraction and figuration are going hand in hand in a way that shows similarities with the work of Philip Guston and Rene Daniëls. The origin of a painting is often related to a poetical anecdote or a humorous story. The motives he uses in his work are derived from mass media and comic books. These are concrete things like a can, a saw or a bat. The recognisable figures aren’t revealing their meaning completely and though they are volatile like graffiti, they have at the same time the penetrating force of an archetypical image.
Swennen is an improviser who knows about the complexity of making a painting. He knows that preconceived ideas are disproved by and during the process of painting itself; with every action you make, there are things happening at the bearer you can’t control or didn’t had in mind when starting the painting. This is one of the reasons why he is a little bit sceptical about theories concerning painting. In a similar way, he feels uncomfortable about explaining the meaning of his and others art by pouring works into words. Every painting is for him a unique adventure, with it’s own irreplaceable history and character.