Art is either spiritual or it is nothing.

 

"Cela ne sera révélé qu'aux petits..." Luc.10,21-22 "
Installation. Détail. 2008

    What fundamentally distinguishes a work of art from an ordinary object and from most works that we dare to present today in museums and galleries as art, is that in the presence of a true work of art you are not only attracted towards it, but called into it and touched to the heart because this work reveals to you an unknown dimension of yourself. A true work of art moves you, it truly sets your soul in motion and your spirit in revolution and evolution, it deepens you and elevates you in the same movement, making you more human and more alive by giving you the experience a new and lasting emotion: a joy, an admiration, an affection, a recognition, a gratitude for the artist who made it and for the Spirit who inspired it and who allowed you to encounter it so that it lives in you forever.

Those who have known and experienced such aesthetic experiences know perfectly well that art is spiritual or is nothing. (1)

Nothing, really?

Nothing other in any case than weak art, art made for fashion, entertainment, show off, decoration, speculation, commerce, art to impress the gallery, lousy art, throwaway art, official art. Nothing other than distorted, vile and empty art, presented to be sold to those who have never encountered, or very little in truth experienced, a work of art worthy of the name, a masterpiece. work, whether it is a painting, a fresco, a sculpture, an architecture, a drawing, an opera, a symphony, a ballet, a poem, a novel… a masterpiece in a word, namely a human work which pursues and reveals to those who live it the original, perpetual and divine Work of the Spirit, giver of life and creator of all that is necessary for its growth and accomplishment.

Official and commercial art belongs to the world, that is to say to the power of money, to the power of nothingness.

Spiritual art belongs to Grace. It comes from the Spirit who makes us in his Image and desires to make himself known to our spirit. It comes from the Living who desires to make himself known to the living that we are. Like the Spirit itself, spiritual art is alive and free and contributes to making humans more living and free beings, thus fulfilling the true vocation of the arts. Those who seek it find it: they are those who, throughout time, have done it and still do it: the artists. And it is those who remake it in their soul, live it in their spirit. Among them are those who help and support artists to accomplish their essential work.

Two spiritual artists of the 20th century saw all this: Marcel Duchamps and Wassily Kandinsky. Each in their own way maintained that art is spiritual or nothing and that it only lives and comes to life in the eyes of those who look at it and in the souls of those who love it.

The Grace Gallery was created in Brussels in 2003 by Robert Empain, who was soon joined by Saskia Weyts. Both were animated by this spirit which animated the founders of initial artistic Modernity and, faced with the nihilism of materialistic modernity, by the need for a return of the spiritual in art.

The vocation of the Grace Gallery was and remains to introduce the work of certain current spiritual artists to lovers of true art. Its founding principles were and remain those of grace: gratuity, freedom, beauty, fraternity, generosity, friendship, inspiration, creation and action.

From 2003 to 2012, the Gallery organized numerous exhibitions on and off its walls, exhibiting around thirty artists free of charge. But it was clear at the end of these years that very few artists were truly animated by the Spirit which animated the founders. The project of forming a group and starting a spiritual artistic movement was therefore postponed until later.

Meanwhile, the profound movement of curiosity and spiritual regeneration that appeared in the 20th century, in reaction to its barbarity unprecedented in human history, had developed and a timid return of the spiritual made its appearance in the contemporary arts. This movement very recently began to arouse the interest of institutional cultural circles.

After a few years of patience, the founders of Galerie Grâce therefore decided to resume its activities in May and June 2023 with the Retrospective of Robert Empain’s works on paper. Cfr: the article opposite: Œuvrer ! Vers un art spirituel - Galerie Grâce - Bruxelles / Work! Towards a spiritual art - Galerie Grâce - Brussels

In 2024, two exhibitions will take place at the Galerie Grâce: that of Robert Empain in June and that of Saskia Weyts in September. We will come back to this.

This Grace Gallery site was created to support this new stage, announce the exhibitions, refer to the sites of the artists presented, discuss the work of certain artists who have sincerely participated in exhibitions and actions for twenty years and open up to other artists in affinity who would like to join us.

This site will still allow those who wish to support us to discover and acquire available works by the artists represented by the Gallery. Those works will be gradually published on these pages, by theme or by artist, with the details necessary for their understanding.

For any questions, information or acquisition, please contact the Gallery by e-mail or by telephone.

Thanks to you, R.E

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(1) On our website “Attention l'art peut ressusciter la Vie! ”, we publish images of works from all eras that can help you to enjoy such aesthetic experiences in real encounters with them.