In 1967 André Bogaert held a solo exhibition at the Palais Beaux Arts Brussels. In this second solo at Beaux Arts, Bogaert presents a series of polyethylene reliefs. This is number one of the 23 works presented at the show in 1967.

Polyethylene on wood

Signed and dated by the artist.

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Painting has been dyed to death, all that could be done with paint on canvas has been smeared, emptied, rubbed flat under the brushes.
– André Bogaert

André Bogaert (1920-1986) is a Belgian avant-garde artist for whom experimentation is central. His oeuvre is multimedia and includes paintings, drawings, assemblages, reliefs, and panoramas. In these, he invariably attempts to create new spaces with force, impetuosity, and emotion.

In the 1960s, with the advent of pop art culture, Bogaert began to question painting, in the form of oil on canvas. Within his repertoire, relief would soon become his chosen medium.
Characteristic of Bogaert is his deep-seated fascination with nature and his fear of death. Ephemeral beauty is his driving force behind the choice of materials from which he constructs the reliefs. Bogaert invariably chose objects from the factories in his own region along the Durme. As a vitalist, he looked for these places to recharge his batteries. His preference went out to simple materials: leather, weaving spools, felt, rubber, burnt wood, crushed or bent metals, and various plastics.

These took on a new identity within his works.
His reliefs are considered lyrical and poetic, but for Bogaert, it was above all a way of distinguishing himself from art history. He wanted to tear himself away from the dominant stylistic figures of the time and strive for the expression of an unusually contradictory and ambivalent sense of life. His organic structures are considered monumental abstractions, but in fact, tell the story of Bogaert’s search for new life and light.