Raoul De Keyser: Touch Game

David Zwirner, New York, US

Until March 1, 2025, David Zwirner presents Touch Game, a solo exhibition by Raoul De Keyser (1930–2012) at the gallery’s 519 and 525 West 19th Street locations in New York. Curated by Helen Molesworth, the exhibition features major works from the artist’s mature period, spanning the 1980s to the 2000s—when the artist arguably was in his true prime. This marks the first time David Zwirner has presented such an expansive selection of De Keyser’s oeuvre, following the gallery’s previous exhibitions of his work in Hong Kong in 2021 and 2022 and Drift, his last solo show in New York in 2016.

De Keyser is known for his engagement with abstraction, developing a practice that employed simple shapes and painterly gestures while resisting narrative interpretation. His compositions reference the natural world and elements of representation, yet they maintain a sense of openness. The exhibition highlights significant works from the 1980s, including pieces from the Zinkend and Hellepoort series, which reflect a shift toward more gestural and dynamic mark-making. Among the recurring formal elements in these works is De Keyser’s distinctive “chalk-line” motif, inspired by the white boundary lines of sports fields. This motif, which first appeared in his work in the early 1970s, is featured in several key paintings on view, demonstrating its evolution across decades. The exhibition also include works from the early 1990s, a pivotal period when De Keyser gained international recognition following his participation in Documenta IX in 1992. Paintings such as Front (1992), originally shown at Documenta, exemplify the artist’s nuanced approach to surface and composition. These works blur distinctions between figure and ground, creating layered textures where painterly streaks and diffused color suggest an ephemeral, almost atmospheric quality. Some of these paintings, which have never been exhibited in the United States, will offer audiences an opportunity to engage with this critical phase of De Keyser’s practice.

Later works from the 2000s, including pieces from the Come on, play it again series, are also included in the show. First exhibited at David Zwirner’s Green Street location in New York in 2001, this series reflects De Keyser’s ongoing experimentation with form and rhythm. The compositions vary in structure, incorporating biomorphic and geometric shapes as well as subtle variations of squares, lines, and dots. The series title carries a musical connotation, evoking the improvisational qualities of jazz while suggesting the potential for endless variation within the constraints of his visual language. Curator Helen Molesworth describes De Keyser’s work as resisting fixed meaning, emphasizing the way his paintings focus attention on small forms and gestures rather than imposing a singular interpretation. The title Touch Game references the artist’s characteristic lightness of touch, a defining aspect of his practice. Despite De Keyser’s longstanding prominence in European institutions, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity for New York audiences to engage with the breadth of his career. It presents a selection of works that highlight his nuanced sense of color, delicate surfaces, and approach to abstraction—one that is at times poetic, at times enigmatic, and always deeply engaged with the material possibilities of painting.

For more information, please consult David Zwirner’s website here.