CONTRAPUNCTUS​

oil on canvas

George De Decker's work always intertwines sound and image. Just like for 'Wit in Wit', his 2019 musical interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, George De Decker again found inspiration in the great German composer. When creating the 'Contrapunctus' series, he was more specifically galvanised by 'Die Kunst der Fuge', a late and unfinished masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach. It involves a skilled compilation of the art of the 'counterpoint', in which different voices with different melodic contours vary more or less independently, but sound harmonious as a whole. In his new series of abstract paintings, George De Decker once again interweaves music and visual art into a harmonious, multi-layered composition, which is composed of images that evoke Bach's canonic, double and mirror fugues, among other things. Starting from four perspective lines that converge in a central space, he paints contrapuntal compositions based on the same main theme. The overpainting, the repetitions and the nuanced use of colour provide, yet again, evidence of his appreciation for variations.

Like Bach, George De Decker's objective is to create diverse sensations and tonalities. In recent years, he has made a conscious decision to move to abstraction in his paintings. He operates in a unique dimension, where music and visual art meet without inhibitions. It is a place of sensations, of memories not easily put into words, of vibrations and touches, of pleasures and sighs. 

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© Ingrid Van Hecke