Saturday, 12 April 2014

George Meertens / Sigmar Polke



Sigmar Polke
Untitled (Lapis-Lazuli)
1998
tempera and resin on canvas
239,5 x 199,5 cm


What is happening in this painting of Sigmar Polke? He brings together the canvas, the resin and the pigment. In doing so, he applies the pigment with the resin to the canvas. I don’t know if there was a plan in the applying. It seems to me that he applied the pigment and the resin, controlling them in the moment of the act. The picture we are now looking at seems to be the organical result of this act.
Sigmar Polke's work is influenced by alchemists and fairytale tellers, chemists and storytellers. My own work is related to medieval mystics such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred of Rivaulx, William of St. Thierry, Hildegard of Bingen, St. John of the Cross. In their work I recognize an approach of understanding time and space given to humans. It is the urge to meet the unknown, the unpredictable that gets hold of my desires. My work ‘The dark night IV’ (from a series of eight paintings on paper, 65 x 50 cm, 2014) is a reference to the poem by St. John of the Cross. Entering the dark night by painting in horizontal en vertical brushstrokes I encounter an unknown experience. The dark side of being is working together with the light in bringing it together into the open. An experience that is rather pre-verbal than verbal. The image as a moment of revelation.
George Meertens, 2014




George Meertens (NL)
The dark night IV
2014
oil on paper
65 x 50 cm



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