Oil on panel
55 x 46 cm
Signed bottom right
Gaston Bogaert’s dreamy and surreal landscapes are deeply evocative. In The Forest has a jarring, other-worldly quality, brought about by the dislocation of an immaculate glasshouse in the middle of wild jungle-like forest. As with dreams there is strange familiarity to the scene, and a sense that there is something too perfect, a peculiar stillness to it. There is also the enigma of a light on inside the glasshouse despite a distinct human absence.
It is a painting that asks more questions than it answers and its mysterious nature is appealing as it unsettling. His works are a continuation of the Belgian Surrealist landscape tradition, most notably Rene Magritte and Paul Delvaux, which investigate the power of the unconscious and dreams.
Having originally studied architecture, Bogaert had an obsession with buildings and his works frequently feature grand, symmetrical houses, usually in isolated surroundings, perfectly centred on the picture plane. Here however he has slightly leant the glasshouse at angle, to add to the sense of confusion and displacement. The world he created was built on nostalgia from childhood memories and his dreams. While reminiscent of Magritte they are devoid of his visual tricks, just leaving the similar landscapes imbued with a quiet mystery and beguilement.
