Gilbert Swimberghe
° 1927, Sint-Andries
† 2015
Gilbert Swimberghe joined the leading Bruges artist and writer collective ‘Raaklijn’ in 1957. Since the 1950s, triangles and squares characterise Swimberghe’s abstracts, but his use of color underwent a continuous evolution.
The warm suggestive colors of expressionism turned into shades of white in order to achieve a higher level of abstraction. In the period 1975-1980 he mainly painted in gray tones. From the 1980s, Swimberghe allowed a degree of imperfections in his paintings, and replaced the very smooth surfaces with slightly more textured ones. Later, his color palette evolved from gray to gray-blue to deep blue.