André Beullens was a key representative of Belgian fundamental painting, alongside Marthe Wéry, Dan Van Severen and André Beullens. Emerging simultaneously in America and Europe in around 1965, the movement was rooted in the colour field painting of American artists Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. Fundamental painting was concerned with the painting process and the exploration of essential elements such as line, colour, composition, medium, texture, material and method. It was closely related to minimal art, which also arose at this time. Fundamental painting rapidly acquired an international dimension – especially in England, America, Germany and Italy – through renowned artists such as Robert Ryman, Robert Mangold, Agnes Martin and Niele Toroni.
Beullens studied art in Brussels and initially rose to national prominence with small-scale paintings indebted to Surrealism and magic realism, in the style of René Magritte and Paul Delvaux. Although distinctly figurative, the works already betrayed the characteristics of Beullens’ later abstract work: his focus on the effect of light on colour and predilection for colour bands and gradations. In around 1961, he switched to abstract art and considered his early paintings “too literary”. Beullens’ experiments at this time led to his first well-known abstract series ‘Ephémérides’. Within a basic geometric structure, he allowed light and colour to expand towards the edge of the canvas, gradually transitioning from one hue to another in bands. It set the tone for the rest of his career.
In his quest for an “infinite colour-depth effect”, Beullens attached great importance to the tonality of colour. He consequently developed a highly personal, labour-intensive painting process. Oil paint was prepared with a palette knife and applied to canvas with a stiff brush, the bristles of which he deliberately shortened. He would then massage the paint deep into the pores of the canvas and erase his finger marks with a paddle brush, after which the whole process was repeated. In the second half of the 1960s, Beullens became obsessed by the interaction between light and colour and explored it through subtly blending colour gradations within strict geometric compositions.
From the 1970s, Beullens’ interest shifted more towards colour per se and he stopped using it as a light distributor. He began to choose his colours more randomly and less in accordance with the colour prism. This saw him pick from the hundreds of colour canvas swatches he had collected over the years in his studio. His works evolved into pure monochromes. In the paintings he created shortly before his death, the exhibition space also acted as a marker, allowing his work – in line with minimalism – to pass for site-specific painting. Partly because of his early death, Beullens never received the recognition he deserved. Nevertheless, he is seen today as a unique figure within Belgian fundamental painting due to his idiosyncratic and profound research into the effect of light on colour.
