In 2012 the S.M.A.K. received a generous bequest from the estate of the Brussels collector Henri Chotteau (1947-2012). It consisted almost entirely of important works by the French artist François Morellet (1926, Cholet).
Henri Chotteau had an extraordinary passion for Morellet’s oeuvre. He had already donated works by this artist to the S.M.A.K. in 2004 and in the context of the solo exhibition in 2007. The museum now possesses 24 works by Morellet from Choteau’s collection, making it one of the most significant ensembles in the world.
Morellet’s oeuvre has clear links with the Op Art and Kinetic Art of the 1960s. His geometric compositions of lines, squares and triangles arise out of the systematic application of predetermined rules. He also allows chance to play a part in this controlled process of creation. This results in neutral, universal images from which subjective choices are as far as possible excluded. But it would be too limiting to approach Morellet’s oeuvre only from this angle. His titles not only offer a phlegmatically serious insight into the way the works came about, but often also have a humorous double meaning. Morellet, ironic and deliberate, elegantly puts into perspective his self-imposed artistic rules and, more broadly, also the myth of creation and the earnestness of art, thereafter returning to a more serious view.
On the occasion of this bequest, the S.M.A.K. is publishing a book with contributions by Philippe Van Cauteren, Valérie Nimal, François Morellet, Thomas McEvilley, Sonja Klee and Rolf Quaghebeur. It will be launched at the opening of the exhibition.
