Marthe Wéry
"There is no need to perfect, but always to complete, to continue, " born in Brussels in 1930, Marthe Wéry was a self-taught artist, visiting many museums and galleries, and going to the artistic environments of her era. In 1966, she showed her first works, geometric engravings, at the Saint-Laurent gallery in Brussels. She then taught engraving at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels before the engraving studio was merged with the painting studio, at her initiative. She helped train many artists. Teaching was an important part of her life.
During a trip to the USA, Marthe Wéry discovered American Minimalism, as well as, and especially Unism, which Polish Wladyslaw Strzeminski theorised during the interwar period. She considered the painting as a whole made of equal parts.
Colour itself became her way of thinking and doing. Wéry pushes the limits of painting, exploring all its basic components. Inspired by artists such as Kazimir Malevich or Barnett Newman, her work evolved from geometrical studies and minimalistic work on paper to monochromes that are marked by colour, the interplay of light, transparency and structure provides her paintings tactility and poetry, moving her away from sterile minimalism.
By the end of the 1970s, Wéry start to achieve international recognition. Among her numerous exhibitions, we could note the Venice Biennale in 1982 with a solo show in the Belgium Pavillion.
Image 1: Marthe Wéry, Untitled, 1998
Image 2: Marthe Wéry, Série Tournai, 2004
