Rinus Van de Velde to release ‘A Fictional Autobiography II'

Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde will publish a second volume of what he calls a “fictional autobiography,” extending his long-running project of casting himself as both subject and narrator inside his own work.

The monograph, A Fictional Autobiography II, gathers more than 200 drawings and sculptures made between 2020 and 2025. The images range from large charcoal canvases to oil pastels and smaller drawings, most featuring handwritten sentences that read like diary entries or private letters placed directly onto the surface of the work.

Although the works were created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the text embedded in the images does not mention lockdowns or public health restrictions. Instead, the recurring subjects are doubt, delay, ambition and shifting self-image — framing the artist as both narrator and character in his own story.

Published by Hannibal Books, the volume is a sequel to the artist’s 2023 monograph of the same title. That 240-page book featured essays by Jan Postma, editor at De Groene Amsterdammer, and Laura Stamps, curator of modern and contemporary art at Kunstmuseum Den Haag.

The new installment includes a single text contribution: a poem by American author A.M. Homes titled Lost Landscape, translated into Dutch and French. It is the only standalone text in the book apart from the words Van de Velde incorporates into his artworks.

Homes’ poem mirrors Van de Velde’s own device: inventing a figure — the “blue man” — whose identity shifts from athlete to diver to dreamer. Like Van de Velde’s painted persona, the character resists stability.

Most of the works reproduced are oil pastels on paper, often in vertical formats. The book also includes the monumental charcoal-on-canvas works he is known for, some stretching nearly 20 feet across, alongside smaller colored-pencil drawings under 16 inches and sculptural pieces made from painted cardboard, ceramic, aluminum and mixed materials.

“He gained recognition for his monumental charcoal drawings, but his oeuvre now encompasses a wide range of media, including installations, film, ceramics, sculptures, pencil drawings and oil pastels,” the publisher said in a news release.

Van de Velde’s works, as listed in the back of the book, are held in private and institutional collections in cities including Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, New York, London, Seoul, Hong Kong, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi.

Many pieces are noted as exhibited through Galerie Max Hetzler or Tim Van Laere Gallery. Exhibition views from Seoul, London, Berlin, Rome and Wassenaar situate the works within gallery and museum settings.

True to its title, A Fictional Autobiography II presents images that read like episodes in a self-authored narrative. The text is not separate from the artwork but handwritten in block letters along the lower margins of the compositions.

In one artwork, a sailboat drifts on open water at sunset. At the bottom, the text reads, “Not the pathos of experience, but the sentimental reverie of an innocent dreaming experience has been your forte, Rinus.” The line suggests the moment may be more daydream than real experience.

“Just try to remember that I will see you tomorrow,” Van de Velde scrawled under an empty and dark bedroom scene. In another bedroom scene, in which clothes are scattered over an unmade bed, Van de Velde has written: “Don’t even try to touch it. Not even with one single finger, never.”

“I’ll make my studio wherever you want to go. Don’t you worry about that!” Van de Velde promises to a child playing in a river. Yet in another of boats on water, he writes: “Unfortunately, there will always be an unbridgeable distance, no matter how small.”

The tone often shifts from vulnerability to defensiveness within a single work. “I am like the weather. I have good days and bad days,” Van de Velde scrawled beneath a colorful abstract artwork. Another references “an endless procrastination,” casting creative delay as part of the artist’s evolving persona.

“Dear Rinus, here is a list of titles you can use in your upcoming retrospective,” the artist wrote underneath a portrait of a person writing, presumably, the suggested titles. And in another, he declares himself a landscape painter, but many of his works feature portraits or self-portraits. “Just let me be a landscape painter. Please,” he pleads in the book.

A Fictional Autobiography II builds on the 2023 volume, carrying forward Van de Velde’s conceit of a self-authored narrative and expanding the project with new works and media. It is out April 14 from Hannibal Books.