This Useless Beauty

Patrick Vertenten (1964, Sint-Gillis-Waas, Belgium) is an artist who paints from the heart. Marked by the use of diffused light and brushstrokes—reminiscent of shallow focus in cinematography—the atmosphere of the Belgian artist’s oeuvre is one of nostalgia and melancholia.

Inspired by film, literature, poetry, and music, Vertenten recuperates found imagery from various sources before transforming them into a brand new entity, examining the bittersweetness of humanity and life in general; loneliness, weakness, intimacy, desire, and Sehnsucht. 

Moved by the beauty of the picture, the viewer is invited to explore the image in its new context, possibly striking a nerve or two, in which the dark tones of the picture resonate with the burden of life, reviving in the contrast of the symbolic and painterly highlights.

Text in English and Dutch.