Lempertz and Studio Koen van den Broek cordially invite you to 'Through Romance',
a solo exhibition curated by Luk Lambrecht.

For the first time, an exclusive selection of works created in van
den Broek’s studio on Jeju Island (South-Korea) is presented in
dialogue with recent works on canvas and a series on paper based
on the architecture of Le Corbusier.

For the occasion of the exhibition, a large-scale mural by van den Broek marks the
monumental museumlike exhibition space, following the rich tradition
of artists like Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly and Sean Scully,
who have previously exhibited at the invitation of Lempertz.

On the windows of the Art Nouveau facade of the auction house, an existing painting by van den Broek is adapted with translucent stickers that will light up in the evening as a monumental light box. Van den Broek, an architect himself, knows very well that architecture and light work synergistically. In the words of curator Luk Lambrecht, the facade "will be a radical intervention in parallel with the many recent studies on paper by Koen van den Broek, based on the phenomenal incidence of light through painted strips of color that fall on the concrete of the chapel in Le Corbusier’s Firminy chapel in sunlight."

Preoccupied with the play of light and the concept of time and space, van den Broek wrote during a nocturnal moment of reflection:


"Painting cannot compete with architecture. Architecture cannot compete with painting. But they talk".


The lightbox windows of the Lempertz' facade also make an obvious reference to Van den Broek's new ‘Blinds Series’, of which 'Blinds#2' displayed above is an example. The use of window-framed blinds as industrial readymades in his paintings offers van den Broek an alibi “to structure areas of paint in compositions that allow a discourse beyond the ‘recognizable’ that prompts the act of painting”, to quote curator Lambrecht.

To read Luk Lambrecht's full exhibition text, click here.
A printed artist publication will be presented at the opening night.