'The End Is Never Near' is the first overview dedicated to the work of Belgian artist Jan Van Imschoot.
Van Imschoot is internationally known for his intimate, enigmatic works from the early 1990s and his recent large-scale, historically inspired tableaux. The exhibition traces a rough chronological trajectory that spans more than 30 years and includes over 80 of his paintings.
Van Imschoot belongs to a generation of artists who laid the foundations for the critical reappraisal of figurative painting during the 1990s. Among his peers, Van Imschoot’s work occupies a unique place due to the profound art-historical awareness from which he paints. He approaches contemporary subjects such as gender, identity, war and peace from inspiration sources such as Dutch 17th- century painting, the work of Tintoretto, Caravaggio and especially that of Edouard Manet, the archetypal peintre de la vie moderne.
Besides the classical history of Western painting, film and literature also serve as important pillars in Van Imschoot’s creative universe. By also making them a focal point, the exhibition aims to bring Jan Van Imschoot’s world to life within the walls of S.M.A.K. "And that world, as the exhibition title suggests, is far from ending".
Image : Jan Van Imschoot, L’échange des bêtises, 2021, Courtesy Templon, Parijs, Brussel, New York © Copyright: Bertrand Huet-Tutti.