The nomad image has been a scapegoat for civilization, which contrasts its own excellence with the nomad's raw and wild life. The nomad image has become an icon of anti-civilization and the nomad has been given the role of civilization's curse. (Niillas Oskal, Philosopher, Norway)

Philippe Vandenberg painted to resist. This act of resistance is one that carries the potential of safeguarding the artist from stagnation and immobility, artistically and conceptually. Resistance was not only the leitmotif of the painter; it was his attitude. Vandenberg continuously pushed his work to its most critical point, its ultimate deadline: the moment when the painting transcends and escapes the painter in order to fulfill its own potential. Metaphorically, the artist compared the act of painting with the kamikaze, and he obsessively scrawled L’important c’est le Kamikaze (The Important is the Kamikaze) on a series of large-scale canvasses. In one of his early writings the artist mused that There is no emergency exit. One can’t escape from his destiny. It was Philippe Vandenberg’s destiny to resist, revolt, curse, sacrifice and live the life of a painter in the margins.

“I am as free as I decide myself; as a painter I don’t have to justify myself nor do I have to consider other people.” Philippe Vandenberg, Painting as a challenge, 1984.

Philippe Vandenberg was born in 1952 and raised in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, a village near Ghent, Belgium. He died in 2009. His work was exhibited in museums and galleries world wide. The Philippe Vandenberg Foundation continues the artist’s legacy.