Selection by Paul Robbrecht

History. Drawings by Philippe Vandenberg.

The impotence of the solitary artist, the resistance of the loner against the ruthlessness of the powerful. Black signs, re-drawings of newspaper cuttings, by an outraged artist. Where was I, in 1990, when Philippe Vandenberg created these drawings: Sadam, John Paul, the Ceaucescu couple, the eagle, Arafat, Castro, Le Pen, all of them now dead or barely alive.

The swastika drawings (2004), stippled in fresh colours, divided into constructive fields. The defenceless and yet strong sign, the Nazi sign, irrefutably, but also the sign of the Buddha and the Copts. Time after time, the sign shocks me, here in these gentle drawings, most recently in Japan. I was terribly shocked in 2009 as I am astonished now.