Walter Leblanc began with figurative paintings in the 1950s, gradually moving toward abstraction, and beyond the flat picture plane itself. By introducing thickness, texture, and material onto the surface, he transformed painting into a field where light and shadow generate constant movement. Space became central to his work: rather than an autonomous object, the painting was conceived as extending into its surroundings and entering into a fluid relationship with the viewer.
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Early figuration (1950–1956)
Trained in classical portraiture and landscape at the Antwerp Academy, Leblanc was particularly influenced by his teacher Antoon Marstboom, whose work he described as combining “the figurative and the abstract… in elegant lines flowing directly from his rich talent”. His still lifes — coffee pots, boats, instruments, bicycles — grew increasingly schematic, favouring sharp line and structure over symbolism. Jazz, especially Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, and Miles Davis, shaped his thinking throughout this period and beyond.
Composition abstraite (1956–1958)
By the late 1950s, Leblanc had left figuration behind. In dialogue with the emerging ZERO movement, he abandoned oil paint for sand, fabric, nylon, tin lids, and sticks, and introduced twisted cotton thread — the material that would come to define his oeuvre. His palette narrowed to black, white, ochre, and earth tones, letting texture and structure take the lead.
Gouache - relief sable (1958–1961)
A series of small, monochromatic gouaches — thread glued or sewn onto cardboard, combined with sand — in black, red, silver, or gold. Chaotic early forms gradually resolved into structured, parallel or concentric patterns unified beneath a layer of paint, anticipating the serial rhythm of his later work.
Twisted strings (1958–1985)
From 1958 onwards, torsion became Leblanc’s defining modular element. Networks of twisted cotton thread, anchored to the support from behind, form near-mathematical grids across predominantly white surfaces. As light shifts and viewers move, the image transforms continually. Leblanc described it as “modulated line structures that, through their contrast, break the monotony of the pictorial surface, creating an active zone”. This marked the moment the viewer became an active participant in the work, and twisted strings remained central to his practice until his death in 1986.
Torsions / Mobilo Static (1963–1974)
Cotton thread gave way to strips of coloured polyvinyl and nylon, twisted into helicoidal forms and set against monochrome backgrounds. Suspended slightly off the surface, the strips respond to light and to the viewer’s movement, producing a vibrating optical effect. Wider and more rigid than thread, the plastic allowed greater control and a more pronounced relief — situating the series between painting and sculpture, and within the wider field of optical and kinetic art.
To browse all paintings by Walter Leblanc, go to CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ