Callewaert Vanlangendonck Gallery, in collaboration with Estate Jan Dries, is presenting an exclusive solo exhibition with a selection of sculptures from 1960 onwards. Jan Dries (1925-2014) was a founding member of G58 and the New Flemish School. From the 1960s, Jan Dries found the key to his oeuvre, Carrara marble. He is fascinated by the effect of light and finds the white marble the most suitable material for representing the a-dimensionality of his art. Light, movement and pure forms are central to his work. His ‘meditative stones’ are always abstract and often monumental. They symbolise the search for the relationship between light and dark, the bringing together of so-called opposites into a unity in which one cannot exist without the other, one becomes the other. His sculptures play with a poetic illusion of symmetry. Front becomes back. Bottom becomes top. High becomes low. Straight becomes crooked. One becomes many. Small becomes large. One becomes the other. Jan Dries’ specific view on what art essentially means to people is reflected in his choice of titles for his works in his own language-specific way. It seems as if the marble itself wants to tell us something. Jan Dries lets the marble speak for itself. In 1986 Jan Dries received the Prize of the Flemish Community for his artistic career, followed by the appointment as Knight in the Order of the Crown. Works by Jan Dries can be found in various museums in Belgium and abroad, in government collections, in integrations and in private and corporate collections.
