Ilse D'Hollander

b. 1968 (Belgium, Sint-Niklaas) - d. 1997 (Belgium)

Education:

St.Carolus, Sint-Niklaas (1981 - 1986)

Kunsthumaniora RICSO Berchem (1987)

Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen (afdeling schilderkunst) (1988)

Hoger Instituut voor Beeldende Kunsten St. Lucas, Gent (afdeling schilderkunst) (1989 - 1991)

Created during a very brief period, from 1989 until her early, unexpected and tragic death at the age of 29, Ilse D'Hollander’s oeuvre exhibits a highly developed sense of color, composition, scale and surface, through the use of subtle tones and pared down compositions. An artist’s artist, her canvases and works on paper favor abstraction, yet subtly allude to the everyday, hinting at nature and the landscape of the Flemish countryside where she spent the last and most productive years of her life.

D’Hollander’s subtly evocative canvases have drawn comparisons to work as various as that of early Piet Mondrian, Nicolas de Staël and Raoul De Keyser – whom she regarded as a friend – her work is distinguished by its contemplative tranquility, ethereal quality and brilliant, deceptive simplicity. The intimate scale of her canvases invites the viewer to embrace a highly personal relationship with the work, where multiple layers of paint, visible brushstrokes and trembling lines of color reveal D’Hollander’s tangible and sensual exploration of the act of painting.