“That I started [in the creation of his art] from my immediate environment was extremely important to me. Only the things I knew, with which I was familiar, which I had caught on their reality value, I could approach free of extra-pictorial aesthetics and pale romanticism. Of course the question remained how I - who wanted to involve modern life in my art - could continue to seek my inspiration at Machelen-aan-de-Leie, a village in the countryside, far from the city and the crowds. Where can one sense better the infiltration of modern life than in a village in the countryside? In the city everything gets integrated immediately, you can't see clearly the insulating and contrasting-alienating effect of publicity, the gas-station, the concrete, the car, etc. On the other hand, I keep saying that we must continue to see the grass, the corn and the cows. Not within an animistic unity, but from a mentality that has the courage to approach these things freely and ruthless in our era. What ordinary people make out of life is fascinating me.”

— Roger Raveel

Dat ik [met het maken van mijn kunst] vertrok uit mijn onmiddellijke omgeving vond ik uiterst belangrijk. Alleen de dingen die ik kende, waarmee ik vertrouwd was, die ik op hun werkelijkheidswaarde had betrapt konden vrij van extra-picturale esthetiek en van bleek romantisme door mij benaderd worden. De vraag bleef natuurlijk hoe ik, die het moderne leven in mijn kunst wou betrekken, mijn inspiratie kon blijven zoeken te Machelen-aan-de-Leie, een dorp op het platteland, ver van de stad en van de drukte. Waar kan men beter het infiltreren van het moderne leven gewaar worden dan in een dorp op het platteland? In de stad wordt alles onmiddellijk geïntegreerd, ziet men niet zo scherp de isolerende en tevens contrasterend-bevreemdende werking van de publiciteit, het benzinestation, het beton, de auto, enz. Aan de andere kant blijf ik ervan overtuigd dat ook het gras, het koren en de koe nog moeten gezien worden. Niet binnen een animistische eenheid, maar wel vanuit een mentaliteit die vrij en meedogenloos deze dingen in ons tijdperk nog zou durven benaderen. Wat de gewone man van het leven maakt, dat boeit mij.
Quote of Raveel, 1969, in the text 'In gesprek met mezelf' ('In conversation with myself'), in the exhibition-catalog of his exhibition in 'De Hallen' (museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands; as cited by Ludo Bekkers in 'Roger Raveel en zijn keuze uit het Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Gent' http://www.tento.be/sites/default/files/tijdschrift/pdf/OKV1975/Roger%20Raveel%20en%20zijn%20keuze%20uit%20het%20Museum%20voor%20Schone%20Kunsten%20in%20Gent.pdf, Dutch art-magazine 'Openbaar Kunstbezit', Jan/Maart 1975, p. 3-4
1960's

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Roger Raveel 10

painter 1921–2013

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Roger Raveel 10

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