Guy Mees
©image: John Huybreghts
1935 - 2003
Born in Mechelen (BE), died in Antwerp (BE).
Guy Mees (1935-2003) emerges as a painter in Antwerp in the late fifties, when post-war avant-garde art from the US was just beginning to find its way to Belgium. His first mature works are a series of black charcoal paintings doubling as reliefs.
Between 1960–1967 Mees produces an extensive body of work using industrially manufactured lace and neon lights in different flat and three-dimensional constellations. These are all titled Verloren Ruimte (‘Lost Space’). Around 1970 Mees experiments with performance and super 8 film. In the seventies, eighties and nineties Mees mostly works on, or with, paper. In 1983 he begins to use his former title again: he sees his site-specific variations with coloured paper as another kind of ‘lost spaces’.
Mees' work is systematic, but the system is created in the work itself. With the exception of a short text in Flash Art in 1973, he never comments on or explains his work, probably because he considers spoken and written words as too definitive for what he intends for his artistic praxis. The accuracy of the oeuvre – intertwining elements of painting, sculpture and performance, which emphasise the importance of colour, texture and space experience – is altogether different from a merely adequate verbal ‘definition’.
Towards the end of his life Mees loosens his strict approach to abstraction, which had given him sufficient variation and freedom till then, and begins experimenting with descriptive, figurative elements.
>Jef Verheyen, Guy Mees, Guy Mees (left) and Jef Verheyen in the Tempeliershof in Weert, where they spent the summer together, painting and writing, 1959.Photography, photograph.
>Ronny Van de Velde , Guy Mees, Jef Verheyen, • 0806 • Untitled, 1960.Drawing, mixed media, gold pigment and blue ink on paper, 50 x 60 cm.
No image
>Jef Verheyen, Nic van Bruggen, VECU, Bert De Leeuw, Mark Claus, Herman Denkens, Jan Dries, Vic Gentils, Jef Kersting, Nic Klerks, Guy Mees, Englebert Van Anderlecht, Guy Vandenbranden, Nieuwe Vlaamse School, 1961.Poster, ink on paper, 2 sides.
>Guy Mees, Zonder titel [Untitled], 1962.Mixed Media, mixed media.
>Guy Mees, Espace Perdu [Lost space], 1964.Sculpture, neon, lace, 124 x 136 x 51 cm.
>Guy Mees, Verloren Ruimte (Lost Space), 1965.Installation, lace, blue neon, wood, 120 cm ø.
>Guy Mees, Portretten [Portraits], 1969.Film, 16 mm film, b/w, sound, 00:03:00.
>Guy Mees, Zonder titel , 1970.Collage, paper, crayon, 134.7 x 170.5 x 2.5 cm.
>Guy Mees, Water te Water [Water to Water], 1970.Video, dvd, 00:03:13.
>Guy Mees, Zonder titel (Trap) [Untitled (Stairs)], 1970.Film, 16mm film, 00:01:00.
>Guy Mees, Portretten [Portraits], 1971.Film, 16 mm film, b/w, sound, 00:03:00.
>Guy Mees, 6 x 4 min. (Portretten) [6 x 4 min. (Portraits)], 1974.Film, digital betacam, dvd, b/w, sound, 00:24:00.
>Guy Mees, Verloren ruimte [Lost space], 1985.Collage, paper, pastel, 123 x 223 cm.
>Guy Mees, Verloren ruimte, 1988.Collage, 133 x 288 cm.
>Robert Flaherty , Guy Mees, Wilfried Huet, GA - Tijdschrift van de Galerij van de Akademie Van Waasmunster, Jrg.9, nr.2, 1 maart 1990, 1990.Periodical, ink, paper, 57.7 x 41.7 cm, 2 p., ill., language : Dutch, publisher : Galerij van de Akademie Van Waasmunster.
>Guy Mees, Verloren ruimte [Lost space], 1991.Collage, wood, paper, 190 x 92 cm.
>Guy Mees, Plint [Plinth], 1992.Photography, paper, 130.6 x 91.2 cm.
>Guy Mees, Imaginair Ballet [Imaginary Ballet], 1998.Installation, mixed media, ca. 300 x 600 cm.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: DE INTERNATIONALE - Museum of Affects. 26 November 2011 - 29 January 2012.
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna. 15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018.
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Visite Bornem - Gedeelde Ruimte. 03 May 2014 - 25 May 2014.
> Exhibition: Guy Mees - Video and Movies – The Collection - A Suggestion. 02 March 2002 - 12 May 2002.
No image
> Exhibition: Jef Verhejen. .
> Exhibition: Jef Verheyen. 24 November 1956 - 14 December 1956.
No image
> Exhibition: Jef Verheyen. 26 April 1959 - 09 May 1959.
No image
> Exhibition: Jef Verheyen - Peintures monochromes. 29 April 1960 - 05 June 1960.
No image
> Exhibition: Jef Verheyen - Schilderijen. 17 October 1959 - 06 November 1959.
> Exhibition: Jef Verheyen. Window on Infinity. 23 March 2024 - 18 August 2024.
No image
> Exhibition: Klein - Rotraut - Uecker - Verheyen. 20 October 1965 - 07 November 1965.
> Exhibition: LATT: new art in Antwerp 1958-1962 #4 center for contemporary artistic expressions. 14 September 2012 - 25 November 2012.
> Exhibition: Museum of Parallel Narratives. In the framework of L’Internationale. 14 May 2011 - 02 October 2011.
> Exhibition: Narcisse Tordoir – The Pink Spy. 13 March 2014 - 25 May 2014.
> Exhibition: Superdemocracy – The Senate of Things. 01 October 2017 - 31 October 2017.
> Exhibition: The Collection. 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
> Exhibition: The collection XXIV. 11 September 2009 - 28 February 2010.
> Exhibition: The collection XXIX – Spirits of Internationalism: 6 European Collections 1956-1986. 20 January 2012 - 29 April 2012.
> Exhibition: The collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
> Exhibition: THE GAP – Abstract Art from Belgium. A Selection. Curator: Luc Tuymans. 30 January 2016 - 29 May 2016.
> Exhibition: Urgent Conversations Athens - Antwerp. 31 October 2016 - 05 February 2017.
> Exhibition: Vision in Motion / Motion in Vision. 21 March 1959 - 03 May 1959.
> Exhibition: Visite Roeselare – The Green Line. 05 May 2016 - 19 June 2016.
No image
> Ensemble: An Architecture for Art - Guy Mees.
> Ensemble: ARCHIEF JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: avant-garde.
> Ensemble: Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
> Ensemble: De M HKA - Collectie [The M HKA Collection].
> Ensemble: ESTATE JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: Het Transcendente [The Transcendental].
> Ensemble: Jef Verheyen - ARCHIVE.
No image
> Ensemble: Jef Verheyen - Ceramics .
> Ensemble: Jef Verheyen - OEUVRE.
No image
> Ensemble: Jef Verheyen - Photographs.
> Ensemble: Jef Verheyen - Works from the 1960s.
No image
> Ensemble: Lost Space.
No image
> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: Middle Gate.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
No image
> Ensemble: Politics of Experience.
> Ensemble: REFLECTIE / REFLEXION / REFLECTION.
> Ensemble: SPIRITUALITEIT | SPIRITUALITY.
> Ensemble: SUPERDEMOCATIE / SUPERDEMOKRATIE / SUPERDEMOCRACY.
> Ensemble: Window on Infinity - Room 04.
> Ensemble: Window on Infinity - Room 07.