Rudy de Sutter was once described as the ‘Samurai of the Piano’. A meaningful title that was attributed to him as a result of a piano improvisation. His goal is to fight the moment with precision and to sublimate it into a resplendent universe. A noble struggle ... Every time an attempt to acquire the ‘ability’. In that case, Jan van Eyck's slogan ‘als ich can’ would not be out of place here.

Although he is mainly known as a pianist / improviser / composer, as a musician, his world is also formed by the plastic arts. His training consisted of music as well as graphic and plastic arts. Since 1997 he has created more than 500 works.

Most of his plastic work has been brought together under the heading 'Sublimations by 12 at 12' (of the size 12cm x 12cm), working with self-evident symbols, which you and I understand and recognize, because they are desires, urges and tendencies that are brought to a higher level or ennobled. His universe is a continuous alternation and fusion of sounds and colors. The number 12 does not only refer to the size in which the image is presented, but also to its symbolic value. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, twelve is the number of the elect. The twelve tribes, the twelve apostles, the twelve disciples of Mithras, the twelve descendants of the prophet Ali, the twelve fruits of the tree of life, the twelve tones, the twelve months, the twelve hours, the twelve units of years in China, the twelve gates of the Holy City, the twelve signs of the zodiac ... Twelve symbolizes the unity of spiritual and worldly elements. As above, so below.

Most of the works were created, in the year 1997, at the Lyrisch Paviljoen De Bron, at the edge of the Meerdaalwoud, a forest between Leuven and Wavre (Belgium), in solitary isolation from society. Another part of the works originated in Orniac (France), somewhere in the Vallée du Lot et Célé, close to the cave of Pech-Merle cave, in the spirit of prehistoric man. In both places creativity and symbolism were intertwined, not only to create a world but to increase its expressiveness.

Several of the original works from ‘Sublimations by 12 at 12’ have been converted into hand tufted carpets by the hand of Vera Vermeersch. The carpets consist in large format: 3.36m x 2.52m - 2.52m x 2.52m - 1.68m x 1.68m – 0.84m x 0.84m. All sizes are multiples of twelve. A lot of works are in private collections in Ghent, Brussels, Orniac (F).

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