Bruno Sluydts (66) deceased: from wild paintings to reasoned chaos (Antwerp)
After a short battle with cancer, the Antwerp artist Bruno Sluydts passed away. In the spring he will exhibit his new abstract paintings in the National 55 gallery in the heart of the Sint-Andrieskwartier.
Frank Heirman
Bruno Sluydts (1956) painting at the Antwerp Academy. As a student he came under the influence of the New Wilden from Germany. In 1988 he exhibited for the first time at De Zwarte Panter, a gallery that would be his home base for fifteen years. He got on well with Fred Bervoets. Proof of this could be seen in June this year at the ‘Broeders van Bervoets’ exhibition at gallery S & S in Borgerhout, which presented an overview of Fred Bervoets’ collaboration with colleagues.
After his wild period, Sluydts fell under the spell of science. Study of chaos theory changed his style. His paintings were abstract, but not linear and measured, but playful and researched improvisations in which they try to express complex reality. In recent years he found a new home at the National 55 gallery in the Prekerstraat 55 in the Sint-Andrieskwartier. Sluydts worked around the corner in Kloosterstraat in an annex of a parking garage. In May he presented a major new series entitled ‘Speculations’. Sluydts leek to have taken a start, until metastatic cancer was used a few months later. He only got 66.