Roger DUDANT “Abstraction” oil painting on canvas, 1978

Roger Dudant (March 10, 1929 in Laplaigne - May 4, 2008 in Péruwelz).
Painter, draftsman, watercolorist, tapestry and mural artist. Trained at the Tournai Academy under V. Noël and E. Salkin (1944-1949), and at La Cambre in Brussels under P. Delvaux (1950-1953). He began in a strictly figurative style influenced by his training in Tournai (Salkin). He quickly evolved towards a more linear style in terms of contours, and increasingly towards abstraction. His works display a play of perpendicular straight lines delineating the colors. Inspired by the world of industry: by large companies, machines, and ships. This strict style evolved from 1954 onwards towards a more fluid, more supple, less structured approach. From then on, he made greater use of curves and hatching. In the press: “From the 1980s onward, buildings gave way to the landscapes of his youth: immense plains, the rhythmic alignment of poplars, the reverberation of the marshes. It is a feeling of eternity, the reflection of a gentle metaphysical melancholy. A pictorial poem whispered in silence.” Winner of the “Young Belgian Painting” Prize in 1953. Co-founder of “Domaine de la Lice.” Taught at La Cambre in Brussels from 1976. Works in the museums of Antwerp, Brussels, Ixelles, Charleroi, Ghent, Liège, Ostend, Tournai, and Verviers. Mentioned in BAS I and in “Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists.” Bibliography: Dictionary of Belgian Visual Artists of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Paul Piron.