Stijn Coppejans of Coppejans Gallery kindly invites you to the exhibition, “Ronny Delrue - allegory of time.”
The vernissage will take place on Thursday, November 7 from 7 p.m.
program 7.11.2024
7.00 pm
opening of the exhibition
7.30 pm
a word of welcome by Stijn Coppejans
introduction by em. prof. dr. Katlijne Van der Stighelen
followed by a reception in the presence of the artist
Allegory of time
The archive of memory. That is how I would describe the oeuvre of artist Ronny Delrue (Heestert, 1957). That phrase has been playing in my head ever since I was introduced to the work of this Ghent artist in the exhibition Tabula Rasa, in Museum Dr. Guislain. Since then I have continued to follow the work.
Through Nicole Hermans, a mutual friend from The Hague, I became personally acquainted with Ronny. As far as I am concerned, our first two meetings were decisive for our later collaboration. They both took place in a museum context. In November 2019, we spoke for the first time at the opening of Ronny's expo Correspondances which was on view together with a presentation by Roger Ballen at the Centrale for contemporary art, Brussels. Two months later we visited together his solo exhibition of the same name at the S.M.A.K. in Ghent, followed by a long coffee conversation. The first studio visit came afterwards, for the recording of the podcast about the free drawing of Joseph Beuys, as a result of my project Beuys100. In that conversation, it became immediately clear that freedom, intuition and spontaneity are very central to Ronny Delrue's art practice. Perhaps these are also the most direct gateways to our thoughts and memories.
Delrue's work is always situated in life, that is, between birth and the moment of death. It is universally recognizable and always leaves enough room for personal interpretation by the viewer. The artist formulates his drawings as diary entries. They thus push together an inner world of thought and an ever-changing outer world. The latter aspect is reinforced by the constant artistic correspondence he maintains with artists scattered all over the world. This working method creates a certain slowness that allows the delusion of the day to evaporate before the work gets to paper.
After all, that is what time does. It separates the important details from the superfluous, blurs the contrasts and perforates the image that was once so clearly burned into our retinas. Putting together an exhibition of Ronny Delrue's work is therefore an allegory of time. After all, in his work we find the (re)creative power of our memories. We see elaborate details in blurred silhouettes, faces that disappear behind stains and subtle expressions in incomplete portraits. Often we can form a renewed image of a thought or event from a few composite fragmentary observations. In this way, we sense what plays between the lines and experience the universality contained in the work.
For the exhibition Allegory of time, we selected some drawings, a painting and a sculpture. Together they form a source of depth and give us access to what largely defines us: the archive of memory.
Stijn Coppejans
Antwerp, 16.10.2024
Artists: Ronny Delrue
