Background
Raoul De Keyser was born on August 29, 1930 in Deinze, Belgium. His father was a carpenter.
Raoul De Keyser was born on August 29, 1930 in Deinze, Belgium. His father was a carpenter.
De Keyser began to paint on his own as a teenager, but soon started writing for daily newspapers, commentating eclectically on sport and art.
He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Deinze under the painter Roger Raveel from 1963 to 1964.
Raoul de Keyser spent his career exploring the physicality of paint, the representational possibilities of minimalist forms, and the ability of simple gestures to communicate strong emotion.
Since the mid-1960s, De Keyser's work was the subject of several solo exhibitions at prominent institutions. At that time De Keyser created abstract paintings and works on paper. He switched from acrylic to oil paint in the mid-1970s.
De Keyser was the subject of solo exhibitions in Bern and Frankfurt in 1991, and regular exhibitions in Antwerp, Berlin, Munich, New York City, Vienna and elsewhere. For much of his career he exhibited primarily in Belgium and the Netherlands, achieving international recognition only after his work was included in the Documenta IX show in Kassel, Germany, in 1992.
De Keyser was represented by Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin and David Zwirner, New York, since 1999.
A large-scale retrospective was presented in 2000 at The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, which traveled to the Goldie Paley Gallery, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.
In 2009 his paintings were exhibited in a retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany and his watercolors were presented jointly at the Museu de Serralves, Porto, Portugal and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin.
Raoul de Keyser had a solo exhibition at the De Loketten, Flemish Parliament, in Brussels, Belgium, in 2011.
He died on October 6, 2012 in Deinze, Belgium.
Untitled
Double Eye
Wait
Camping II
Sketchy Cobaltic Blue Flag
Lines
Untitled
Untitled
In Green (8 Verticals/2)
Untitled
Baron in Al Held-Veld
Recover
Opponents
Zeefdruk
Avondrood (evening Glow)
Blue Dots (8 Verticals/1)
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled (Expedition)
Untitled
3 Hoeken III
Inval
Trap
A Failing?
Kalklijnen hoek
Oskar 5
Presto
Steek 1
Fresh
Krijtlijnen HV
Turkish 1 May
Clos
Quotations: "I don't want to become the 'pretty' painter... Ultimately I want to paint ruthlessly."
Raoul De Keyser was a member of the New Vision movement, a Flemish movement led by the painter Roger Raveel with the avowed aim of "revaluing everyday reality".
Raoul De Keyser married Dina Baudoncq in 1952. His wife died in 1984. He had three sons, Luc, Piet and Jan, and six grandchildren.