Exercises of admiration

The humility of a man goes hand in hand with his spirit. For Yves Belin, this art of obliteration is a manner of asceticism which concerns philosophy somewhat. The ocean of the life is immense and we let us perceive only its surface. Its depths are often impenetrable for us. All that we can do is to tune in our senses and to translate, according to our gifts, the subtle vibrations that we receive. "Who contemplates muddy water fails to see clear water" expresses the thought of Tchouang-Tseu, Chinese philosopher and well-read man who lived more than two thousand three hundred years ago but whose perception remains of a brilliant topicality.

[...] Humanitarian first of all, Yves Belin belongs to the kind of people whose contact enriches you, whose word, precise and direct, keeps you away from the meanness of which everyday life is nourished like the only possible reality. Discussing with him, while discovering his work, opens and reveals in you an unsuspected potential. He acknowledges however that the paintings are always an underestimation comparing to the artist's perception : "There is always a loss between the idea and its realization. But taking into consideration the others is of great importance for me. During the exhibition, this glance comes to bring elements of truth to me. The essential is always to leave a place to the emotion. In the domain of education, it is by it, moreover, that the knowledge is communicated. What explains the phenomenon of creation comes from our rather difficult connection to things. The suffering should be sublimated.' The curve should never be soft, but tight. We have a free spirit but in a captive body. In spite of the passing time, I remain faithful to the line. It is necessary, as much as possible, to reduce the technical mediations, somewhat in the manner of the calligraphers of the Far East."

Working unceasingly on his "variations", Yves Belin is a painter dominated by two elements, the air and the water. Between the algae and the clouds, he builds day after day his shifting mental residence.

Luis PORQUET, 2005