Saturday, 17 August 2013

Toon Verhoef / Clorindo Testa





Clorindo Testa
Untitled
1962 
oil on canvas 
59,1 x 45,1 cm


The first artist who had a profound influence on me was Clorindo Testa, an Argentine painter and architect. I saw his work when I was 15 in Buenos Aires, where I lived in the 60's. His work spoke of the city - its grey/white concrete walls, marked, stained, graffiti, endless featureless streets, sprawling disconsolate suburbs, dust, heat, courtyards with radios playing tango, echoing the words of Homero Manzi's immortal "Sur"...

Sur,
paredón y después,
Sur,
una luz de almacén...
 

San Juan y Boedo antiguo, y todo el cielo
Pompeya y más allá la inundación...

The idea that the experience of reality could be transformed into a non-representational image, with no narrative, was an astounding discovery for me. Then I knew I wanted to make paintings.
Clorindo Testa died in April 2013, at the age of 89.

Toon Verhoef 2013




Toon Verhoef (NL)
No title
2012

oil and acrylic on canvas
150 x 100 cm 
www.toonverhoef.com



1 comment:

  1. Beautiful story, great to read a bit about your background story and how Testa influenced you as a young boy and as an artist now. Both nice pieces of work. I think I saw this painting at galerie onrust some time ago.

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