Christian Develter: Think Design Magazine Artist of the Month 2011 and Cover Story.

Modern Artist Catches the Spirit of Asia in the 21st  Century

With Thanks to Michael and Trisha at Think Design Magazine

WHAT DOES A PORTRAIT OFFER US, THE ART-LOVING PUBLIC TODAY, THAT IS NOT BETTER CAPTURED WITH A DIGITAL CAMERA AND REPRODUCED INSTANTLY IN A VARIETY OF MOOD COLOURS? TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION WITH CLARITY, ONE GREAT EXAMPLE IS THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN DEVELTER, A BELGIAN ARTIST WHO HAS BEEN BASED IN BANGKOK SINCE 1996. HIS WORK COMBINES A EUROPEAN SENSIBILITY, BASED ON SOME TRACES OF ART-NOUVEAU AND OTHER MOVEMENTS WITH A STRONG ASIAN INSPIRATION AND REVERENCE FOR THE SUBJECT. STRONG HUES OF RED DOMINATE A SERIES ABOUT CHINA. THE COLOUR IN HIS PAINTINGS ARE WHAT INSTANTLY DRAWS THE EYE WITH THE FORCE OF VIBRANT JUXTAPOSITION BUT THE VIEWER WILL CONTINUE TO GAZE AND FIND THE BEAUTY OF THE SUBJECTS AND THE COMPOSITIONAL QUALITY OF THE LIGHT REVEALING A GREAT DEPTH TO THE CHARACTERS BEING EXPOSED.

Christian Develter, born in Belgium in 1968, grew up with design ambitions and attended the institute of Fine Arts, St Lucas and then the Royal Academy of Fine arts in Antwerp. He studied interior design and then fashion. His parents were very supportive of his direction so long as they saw he could make ends meet. It seems clear to me that his polyvalence in design is an important aid in his work and his remarkable sense of composition. First coming to Thailand to work on interior design, he swiftly migrated into painting and presenting his view of Asian cultures through his work. He carries on the tradition of Chinese portraiture that has gained enormous fame from artists such as You Yuhan, Wei Dong and Zhang Xiaogang. These artists have since the 1990s 
presented many interpretations of Chinese culture through massive numbers of representations of Chairman Mao, smiling and distorted, to name just one example. Develter does not follow this form, instead presenting his subjects with a measure of beauty and a depth of understanding of the subjects and the cultures that they represent.

Develter and I spoke at length about his inspiration and the impact that his portraits achieve. He mentioned that “the way the subjects look at you in the portrait creates a story”. He cited the example of Cambodia, and its cultural difficulty of expressing sensuality, something he tried to do with his Cambodian series. “Khmer Ferminitude” completed in 2007 does a masterful job of bringing out that sensuality that is so hard to express there. Later, in his Chinese themed series Chasing the Dragon, he refers to Chinese culture in an unassuming way that presents some celebrities through the prism of his unique gaze. In the series Chasing the Dragon, the work refers to Chinese icons but not all are celebrities. These exhibition pieces are not strictly a series but a group of paintings that fit together”, he told me, “my figures become real to me through the whole process and I start to feel like I know them in person”. When looking at his work, this sense of knowledge and depth about the subject really ads a complexity to the pieces that allow them to break apart from the Chinese artists who came before.

Develter is constantly evolving his subjects and style with his maturation as an artist. He explained to me how his pieces evolve; “who I paint is actually a coincidence and the result of an ongoing process. First, I started with the more figurative and in my Big Mama Collection, I retained the colours and let the  works grow into more realistic and recognisable figures or ones that are purely made up in my mind. ” We also discussed a new series he is focusing on currently which is based on larger pieces, 3 metres by 2 metres in size. This constant evolution is fascinating to follow and makes a deeper knowledge of his complete body of work, a bonus for the serious art lover. To follow this path and the work building on itself is an additional curiosity. With each series growing out of the last, still connected but from afar, over time his knowledge and careful study of Asia is revealed and is a magnificent and new way to understand the complexity of the cultures that surround us.

Develter has just opened a new studio in Bangkok. It is a large, open and airy space that gives him added inspiration. Located near the river, the Warp Studio 54, allows Develter to work on these larger paintings he is currently composing and develop his work further and in new directions. We will certainly be watching closely to see what he delivers next and we will be working to bring some of his new work to Phuket in the fall. With his amazing colours, story and composition, the future is bright for this complex artist. We have become big fans during the course of getting to know him and his work and will continue to follow him in the coming months and years.

As we finished our chat, he told me that his new studio was allowing him to experiment with brush changes, and he now works in clothing resembling gym gear, better to allow his new active and larger paintings to evolve.