Pol Pierart, born in 1955 in Liège, plays with words to bring out multiple meanings and his works encourage us to take a step back and consider certain essential notions from a completely different angle.

As Julie Bawin explains in a text published in l’Art même in 2007: “If there is one artist whom no consideration of fashion seems to divert from the path he has determined to follow, it is Pol Pierart. Away, almost in secret, he develops a constant and coherent body of work which has the unpredictability of continuing to hold the eye, to shake up our habits of vision and to put an end, temporarily, to the triumph of demonstration. Throughout his exhibitions, we are always won over by the little discoveries of a man who, if he does not like public speaking, plays skillfully with words, the irony of shifts in meaning and the fantasy of innuendos (…) l’Art même en 20007 : « S’il est un artiste qu’aucune considération de mode ne semble détourner du chemin qu’il s’est déterminé à suivre, c’est bien Pol Pierart. A l’écart, presque en secret, il développe une œuvre constante et cohérente qui a ceci d’imprévisible qu’elle continue de retenir le regard, de bousculer nos habitudes de vision et de mettre un terme, provisoirement, au triomphe de la démonstration. Au fil de ses expositions, on demeure toujours conquis par les petites trouvailles d’un homme qui, s’il n’aime guère la parole publique, joue habilement avec les mots, l’ironie des glissements de sens et la fantaisie des sous-entendus (…)

Of his painting, the artist says that it allows him to go directly to the essential, that it authorizes him to grasp the physical presence of the word. Thus, unlike his photographs which apostrophize the attention with meaningful modes of association and a staging of aphorisms and other language games, the canvases surprise by a great economy of means and by a rhythmic syntax limited to a single word. In fresh color, the painter quickly traces letters that contain a seemingly innocuous term. Anyone who knows the artist even a little will know what happens next: through a play of crossing out, superimposed lines and doctored letters, the initially written word takes on another meaning and encourages all sorts of readings, excursions and detours. Like a comet, the letters zigzag through our thoughts. They move quickly, they hit the mark and are in keeping with the detached irony of the message delivered. Behind the apparent lightness of semantic interference, there is a seriousness that is barely acknowledged.