Guy Rombouts
(Geel,
1949 )
After his training in Free Graphics, Guy Rombouts worked as a typographer-printer in his father’s company. In his late twenties, he moved to Antwerp, where he became fascinated by visual poetry and the artistic experiments at the legendary Wide White Space Gallery. Rombouts believes our worldview is shaped by the language through which we shape our thoughts, while also questioning the ability of language to communicate those thoughts. Starting in 1975, the artist has been searching for alternative communication systems in which language and meaning coincide. He includes found objects that refer to letters in his work as well as self-designed alphabets, of which Azart is the best known. Since 1984, Rombouts has used Azart — initially often in collaboration with his partner Monica Droste (1958-1998) – as an instrument and a code in a diverse oeuvre of screen prints, paintings, installations and monumental interventions in public spaces.
