Balance Painting

Mathieu Bassez (°1969 Ghent, Flanders) Mathieu Bassez grew up in Flanders, home to the Flemish primitives as well as Van Eyck, Rubens and Breughel. He started painting in his early teens but it was at university obtaining a Masters in Eastern Philology (Japanese cultural history and literature) and writing a thesis on Utamaro, the 19th Century Japanese painter of daily life scenery (the floating world) that his interest in art intensified. This culminated in his studying painting at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts. After an exhibition in Osaka organised by the Belgian government, he quickly built up an international career closely cooperating with renowned international galleries. Embracing his roots, Mathieu Bassez applies the authentic oil technique of the Italian and Flemish master painters, working on finely woven, handmade linen sourced from a centuries-old Flemish company. Painted in one fine layer of oil, the end result has the smoothness of an Old Master. Each painting has remarkable detail, inviting the onlooker to reach out, touch the canvas and step into it. His stay in Japan taught him to use a daring mix of a European renaissance technique and Asian purification, emphasizing the essence of the subject. In 2007 the new MEAM-museum which is situated next to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona acquired two paintings of Mathieu Bassez, and commissioned a monumental original oil painting of 5 meters of a life size horse. Beyond the Old Master techniques, his life size contemporary horse paintings evoke a strong visual impact. Mathieu Bassez' quest to depict the horse has resulted in intensely moving oil paintings, which provide an amazing and unique insight into the physical dynamics and human spirit of the horse. Painting the detailed sculptural aesthetics of the horse and depicting the emotional heritage of the horse's eye, he honours the famous proverb "All the treasures of the earth lie between the eyes of the horse." All throughout history man has expressed and recorded our relationship with horses. As Winston Churchill quoted "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man".