Roger Raveel - Cart, wall and white presence

Roger Raveel was born on 15 July 1921 in Machelen-aan-de-Leie, a village near Ghent where he always lived and worked until his death on 30 January 2013. He studied at the Municipal Academy of Deinze and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. His teachers included Hubert Malfait and Jos Verdegem. Through his friend Hugo Claus he got to know painters from the Cobra group such as Karel Appel and Corneille in the early 1950s. However, he wanted to take a completely different path with his painting. In 1962 he stayed in Albisola Mare (Italy) for three months where he worked and exhibited with artists such as Lucio Fontana and Asger Jorn.

In the second half of the 1950s he evolved to a more abstract painting that has its roots in the experience of the organic, the vegetative, the animal. But around 1962 he painted the triptych 'Neerhof' with a cage with a living pigeon in the middle. He wanted to create a direct dialogue between art and reality, his 'New Vision'.
In 1966-67 Raveel transformed the cellar corridors of the castle in Beervelde, near Ghent, into a pictorial environment. He received the cooperation of Etienne Elias, Raoul De Keyser and Reinier Lucassen. After the paintings in Beervelde a number of painted objects were created such as 'Illusion Group' and 'Garden with cart to transport the sky'. His alert environmental awareness led the artist to visualise his commitment by means of manifestations such as 'The Swans of Bruges' and 'Raveel on the Leie' (1971). Almost 20 years later, in 1990, Roger Raveel commemorated the outbreak of the Second World War by driving a painted wardrobe mounted on wheels through the city centre of Brussels.
For his artistic activity and his contribution to art history, Roger Raveel received honourable mentions at the Young Belgian Painting Prize (1958 and 1960) and an award at the Europa Prize (1962), the International Joost vanden Vondel Prize (1983), the Golden Medal of Honour of the Flemish Council (1992), the noble title of Knight (1995) and the Van Acker Prize (1996).