Raphaël Buedts has created an impressive body of work drifting between sculpture, drawing and painting. His sculptural work is characterised by intimate exploration of wood, as for him working with wood is a form of being. The wood has a soul, a heart and a secret. Just as Buedts uses chisel to work the wood, with graphite he masters the paper. His drawings are an attempt to trace a reality. With steady lines he achieves a subtle play of brittle forms visualising familiar looking worlds in a placeless
manner.
Raphaël Buedts, was born in 1946 in Ghent. Although he grew up in Ghent, Buedts was partly brought up in Mater (a village in the Flemish Ardennes) by uncles and aunts who ran a farm. This is where his fascination for nature and the countryside began.
The young Buedts’ mother, who painted in her spare time, encouraged him to take up an artistic career.
In the early 1970’s, Raphaël Buedts met the poet and art critic Roland Jooris. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship and collaboration.
In 1971, Buedts started designing drawing tables and furniture. The wooden furniture things came into being at the same time as purely functional furniture.
His intense drawing work remained an autonomous discipline throughout the entire oeuvre, thought he also drew on the wooden sculptures.
In 1986, he exhibited Furniture for a Bird at the Wiedauwkaai during Cambres d’Amis, the much talked about International group exhibition in various houses in Ghent organised by Jan Hoet, director of Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.’s predecessor).
From 1985 onwards, Buedts painted, inspired by nature, while his sculptural production declined temporarily. To prepare for painting he drew small sketches in pencil and photographed landscapes and aspects of nature.
In the late 1990’s, sculpture once again became the focus point. The rough wooden sculptures entered a dialogue with open-work pedestals, a series of benches and collection of easels.
When Buedts became ill, he no longer had the strength to sculpt and concentrated entirely on drawing and painting. The last drawings were applied directly to the walls of the Den Bouw gallery in Kalken. Raphaël Buedts died in 2009
