Walter Leblanc 

Biography of Walter Leblanc  ( 1932-1986 )

"My art is more like music because the music is abstract. It is perceived in volume, tones, structures, rhythms, compositions." Walter Leblanc

The works of Walter Leblanc belong to the international movement of kinetic and optical art. Painter and sculptor born in Antwerp, he trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown, especially with René Guiette. Following the wishes of his father, he won a diploma of advertising that will allow him to provide for a while.

In 1957 he rebelled against the spontaneous and emotional gestures of informal art. He uses poor materials and introduces sobriety and serenity. Thus, the monochrome white reliefs twisted cotton threads, turn into "mobilo-statics" twists to colored ribbons to evolve then to what he will call the "archetypes".

In 1958, he was one of the founding members of the G58, which he found members of the international group "Nouvelle Tendance" (1962).

This period was decisive for Leblanc's work, which is based on three key elements: light, space and movement. As early as 1959, torsion became the founding element that allowed the work to reach the three-dimensional field. In 1964, he made real architectural integrations. The twist was the support of different series (Twists, Twisted Strings, Mobilo Statics) that punctuated the evolution of the work. The ultimate series Archetypes focuses on the study of the relationships between the triangle, the square and the circle.

Structuring his scultpures or systematically rhythmically the surface of his paintings, the twist allows the opening on a tense space where shadows and light answer tirelessly. The plane of the image is divided into vertical strips of plastic, turned around themselves. The color sheet is so thin that the materiality of "painting" is not even evoked: materiality is only suggested by the twisting movement.