Philippe Vandenberg (Hauser & Wirth New York, 2017)

This film documents the solo exhibition Philippe Vandenberg. The exhibition was held in 2017 in Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th Street. Background is provided by curator Anthony Huberman and the artist’s daughter Hélène Vandenberghe. Central to the exhibition were Vandenberg’s obsessive investigations into the tensions between language and abstraction, words and wordlessness. On view for a first time was a complete example of a drawing book by Philippe Vandenberg, revealing an intimate, diary-like form of expression. In stark contrast to the immediacy of this work on paper, a selection of his late monochromatic abstract paintings showed the artist often painting over earlier works, building up layers of images and colors.