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The grand gestures and feelings of Mortier are close to the powerful artistic means of the expressionists – especially Permeke. Mortier goes further still; he seems to near-physically identify himself with form and content. For him, the motif becomes a gigantic, ‘primitive’ sign that wants to penetrate beyond the painting’s borders into the world around it. But as the primary motor, we have to look at the artist’s own temperament. Mortier stands well-nigh alone in his generation. By way of his formats, his fiercely intense and extreme method of working, he sets himself clearly off from the majority of his delicate and cautious artistic contemporaries. His work seems too big for a small country, but nevertheless it is difficult to conceive of them having been born elsewhere.