Icons without Religion. The Work of Dan van Severen

The work of Flemish painter Dan van Severen exudes naked contemplation, detached timelessness and a complex simplicity. It shuns all forms of ostentation, all embellishment, all pictorial effect. Van Severen could be regarded as a secular monk who incarcerates himself in the cell of his work. Only the cross, the circle, the square, the lozange and the diagonals remain as elements of the alphabet with which he creates his universe. It is a unique yet versatile alphabet, the most extreme limits of which are as incomprehensible as they are infinite. Thus the artist creates icons without representation, without narrative, without religion; icons that speak of the yearning for an unattainable harmony.