"Paintings"

  For more than half a century already Cel Overberghe writes history both as painter and as a jazz musician. He has obtained numerous awards and his expositions in his home country as well as abroad show that his creative energy is both youthful an energetic.
  After his training as graphic artist he became designer and illustrator of books and teacher. Soon he broke out of the flat mould of books and graphics and he started painting with all creative means available. The joy of painting is of essence to Cel and he prefers day by day evolution to commercial enslavement. Many see the confrontation with his engaging works as an exclusive privilege.
  Cel Overberghe is co-founder and youngest member of "Groep 58", established in the "Hessenhuis" (Antwerp – Belgium) in 1958. Together with other iconoclastic artists he creates ground-breaking works, characterized by their sense of renewal and experiment. His feat as jazz musician are also noted : he plays all of trumpet, bass, drums, tenor and alto saxophone and piano. Cel performs with sculptor Ceasr Bailleux, Jack van Poll, Jack Sels, Paul Van Gijsegem and Steve Potts.
  Cel Overberghe ; "Each and every work has to be better than the previous. I want to show what freedom can mean, that everything can be different; I want to show this in both my music and in my paintings. Abstraction is freedom at its peak and it gives the viewer the freedom of interpretation."
Each of his works show a clear architectural balance as well as a strongly defined atmosphere that reach into to the soul of the viewer.

"The silent contemplation, the visual absorption that gives both pleasure and meaning, thatis what matters. No explanation, no story, no verbal analysis whatsoever can replace this experience, nor would they add anything essential. Cel Overberghe can achieve this by being faithful to the high artistic level he has set for himself at the start of his career."
Recentie Dr. Wim Meewis