Roger Remaut
Master of Belgian Abstraction • 1942–Present
Born in the Ruins
In 1942, Roger Remaut entered the world in Nazi-occupied Ostend. While Europe burned, a child played amongst the bombed ruins of his city. These fragments became his first canvas—jagged walls, collapsed structures, surfaces scarred by violence and time.
This childhood among devastation would forever shape his artistic vision. The damaged walls of postwar Belgium became the genesis of his abstract language—a visual poetry drawn from concrete destruction.
Nazi-occupied Ostend, 1942–1945
Westhoek Academy, 1958
The Making of an Artist
From 1958 to 1962, Remaut studied at the Westhoek and Ostend academies under masters Gustaav Sorel, Maurice Boel, and Willy Bosschem. He spent four years absorbing classical techniques, then remained another four years as an informal student, deepening his philosophical approach to art.
The academy provided structure; but it was the ruins of his childhood that provided vision. Here, formal training met lived experience—technique meeting the imperatives of a generation shaped by war.
“In the shadow of the atomic bomb — ART must find a new language to speak.”
— Roger Remaut
The Urban Canvas
Remaut’s artistic practice is rooted in physicality and materiality. His bold abstract paintings are layered with found objects, graffiti, scrawled text, and thick textures—raw surfaces that feel weathered, emotional, and politically charged. Canvases are built like urban walls: cracked, damaged, and alive with hidden meaning.
His process is instinctive and physical. Works evolve slowly through layers of matter and paint, responding to the artist’s immediate impulses. There are no fixed narratives—just fragments, moods, and moments that ask the viewer to look again. Each piece bears the marks of time, struggle, and meditative practice.
This approach is not accident but philosophy. As Remaut himself states:
“I don’t paint to please an audience — I am the audience, relishing in my own performance.”
This declaration reveals the core of his practice: artistic authenticity demands radical independence. He paints not for external validation but for the integrity of the creative act itself—a stance born from decades of making art in response to violence, loss, and the human need for beauty.
Emblematic - Roger Remaut, flanked by scultpures by Bernard Pieters & Patrick Steen
R53 2T — Roger Remaut
Into Abstraction
Remaut’s first exhibition in 1982 was held with his brother Pierre at Galerie De Peperbusse in Ostend. While Pierre rendered the human form, Roger shifted to an exploration of materials and abstract form.
His early palette was restrained: shades of grey and black. No color to distract, no ornament to seduce. Just form, space, texture, and the profound silence between them.
Recognition followed swiftly. Between 1982 and 1985, he was selected for several respected national painting prizes: the Prijs Schilderkunst in Harelbeke (1982) and Aarschot (1985), the Hoppeprijs in Poperinge (1983), and the Gaverprijs in Waregem (1984).
2X REMAUT, First exhibition, 1982
Roger Remaut in his Ostend Studio • 1980's
The Flemish Gallery Circuit
Throughout the 1980s, Remaut maintained an active solo exhibition programme across Belgium—Ostend, Gent, Mechelen, Kortrijk. He exhibited at influential Flemish galleries such as Galerie De Peperbusse, Galerie Dialoog, and Galerie Tres, spaces known for their engagement with progressive contemporary practices.
Each exhibition built upon the last, establishing Remaut as a consistent and evolving voice within the Belgian abstract movement. Gallery directors and collectors took notice—his restrained palette and textured surfaces spoke to something deeper than decorative abstraction.
Gallery Den Artiest, Ostend, 1983
Institutional Recognition
By 1986, Remaut’s work had entered significant private collections across Europe. That year, during the live painting event Tubernetica, his work was acquired by the Belgian government and hung in the office of the Minister of the Interior—an official seal of recognition.
Jewish Pride — Office of the Minister for Internal Affairs
In 1990, his work entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend, marking a pivotal moment in his career. Further acquisitions followed: the Belgian Government, the Flemish Provincial Government, and additional governmental institutions affirmed his position within public collections.
Untitled — Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend
Ask my Daughter — Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend
A career-defining moment arrived in 1994 with a major solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ostend. The museum acquired three works for its permanent collection. One year later, in 1995, Remaut exhibited alongside Belgian masters James Ensor, Constant Permeke, and Leon Spilliaert at the prestigious “Artists from the Coast” exhibition at Group 2 Gallery in Brussels.
Leon Spilliaert
Constant Permeke
James Ensor
His work garnered sustained critical attention throughout this period. Exhibitions were featured on BRT2 and TV Focus, contributing to his public visibility in Belgium. Scholarly engagement followed with inclusion in key reference publications by Norbert Hostyn, former curator of the Museum of Fine Arts Ostend. International coverage appeared in Art Bulletin Magazine (Ireland, 1994) and Gallery 24 (Berlin, 2005).
Acrylage Noir — Exhibited in his solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend.
Billericay Town
New Horizons
In 1997, Remaut relocated to Billericay, England for three years, initiating a period of increased international engagement. His work appeared in galleries and cultural venues across London, Ipswich, Norwich, and Luton—including presentations at the Beecroft Art Gallery and Chambers Gallery.
Between 1998 and 1999, exhibitions followed in Amsterdam, Quimper, and various English venues. His participation in interdisciplinary events such as the Norwich Film & Multimedia Festival and the BP Arts Festival reflected a flexibility of medium and context. Throughout this period, exhibitions in Belgium, Germany, and France continued unabated.
Return to Belgium
In 2000, Roger returned to Belgium, settling in the Westhoek village of Pollinkhove. There, in a new studio, his practice deepened and evolved. Notable exhibitions followed: the Watou Arts Festival (2000), presentations at Cultural Centre De Branding in Middelkerke (2007), and the International Assemblage Exhibition in Berlin (2005).
Over two decades, solo exhibitions in Gistel, Ostend, Bredene, and Kortrijk at venues including Square 42 Gallery and Galerie de Feniks cemented his status as one of Belgium’s most significant abstract artists. His career now encompassed 36 solo exhibitions and 42 group exhibitions across Europe.
Pollinkhove
Make Art Not War!
Born into the shadow of tyranny, Roger Remaut was named for an uncle—a resistance fighter captured and executed by the Nazis—yet even his identity was conscripted by the occupation. Forced to adopt the Germanic spelling “Rogier,” he entered the world with a name scarred by decree. Because of this, his entire artistic practice has been an act of defiance; his abstract language is not escapism, but a profound philosophical response to that original subjugation.
In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono challenged the world with their slogan: “Make Love Not War.” It was a statement of radical pacifism during an age of Vietnam and global violence. Decades later, Remaut would arrive at his own artistic manifesto: “Make Art Not War.”
For Remaut, this was not a new philosophy—it had always been his practice. Every brushstroke, every abstraction, every meditation on form and space was an answer to destruction. Where violence fragments and destroys, art rebuilds and heals. Where war silences, creativity speaks.
His childhood ruined by fascism, his name Germanicized against his family’s will, Remaut spent eight decades proving that human hands create beauty far more powerful than they create weapons. His abstract works—born from damaged walls and the scars of postwar Europe—stand as testimony to the survival of the human spirit.
In 2023, at 83 years old, he formally declared this philosophy with the exhibition “Make Art Not War” at Xochi Art Gallery in Portugal. It was not a new title. It was the culmination of a lifetime’s work—a defiant, unwavering answer to every violence he had witnessed.
“Where there is war, I make art. Where there is silence, I create noise. I create in the face of destruction.”
Continuing the Practice at 83
In 2023, at 81 years old, Remaut relocated to Portugal and made his artistic debut with the powerful statement exhibition “Make Art Not War” at Xochi Art Gallery. The exhibition reaffirmed the social and ethical dimensions of his work, demonstrating the continued relevance of his material practice within contemporary discourse.
He continues to paint with undiminished vision and energy, currently represented by Xochi Art Gallery where his work is presented to an international audience of collectors and institutions.
Four exhibitions now comprise his current series: “Into Abstraction,” “New Horizons,” “Form of Figuration,” and “Transcendence.” Each represents a meditation on his artistic practice—the accumulation of a lifetime’s inquiry into form, space, texture, materiality, and the profound silence that lies at the heart of abstraction.
Roger 83, at his exhibition - Into Abstraction | Xochi Art Gallery, Portugal, 2025
Early Works: 1982-1997
Remaut's early abstract period, characterized by restrained palettes of grey and black, exploring texture and form.
Untitled I
1987
Evenwicht
1982
Emblematisch
1995
Untitled
1992
Arcylage Noir
1994
Monologue Intérieur
1997
Recent Works: 2023-2026
His current practice focuses on intimate works, where decades of mastery are condensed into powerful surfaces.
Untitled
2023
Make Art Not War
2025
Form of Figuration
2025
Make Art Not War
2025
Inconcreto
2026
Untitled is also a Title
2026
Legacy & Collections
36 solo exhibitions. 42 group exhibitions. Works held in public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States.
Permanent acquisitions: Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend • Belgian Government Collection • Flemish Provincial Government • Belgian State Archives • Office of the Minister of Internal Affairs
Scholarly documentation: Archival records preserved at MUZEE Ostend, ensuring long-term scholarly access and institutional continuity.
His long-standing connection to Ostend—historically associated with James Ensor and Leon Spilliaert—situates him within a tradition of artists concerned with psychological depth, material presence, and existential inquiry.
Roger Remaut stands as one of Belgium’s most distinctive abstract artists—a voice forged in the ruins of war, refined through decades of rigorous practice, and still speaking with power and clarity at age 83.
Curriculum Vitae
Roger Remaut