Kees Barten / JCJ Vanderheyden

 

JCJ Vanderheyden

Blauw kader

1966-1980

polyvinyl acetate paint, distemper on canvas

240,5 x 197,8 x 6 cm

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

 

 

 

 

It might be a little embarrassing for someone who cites JCJ Vanderheyden as one of his sources of inspiration but who only delved into the literature after receiving the invitation to write this blog. Having been born and raised in Geleen, my point of reference was not so much the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as the Walraff-Richards Museum in Cologne, which houses the Sammlung Ludwig. In this collection, American ‘post-war art’ had absolute precedence, and having grown up on pop music and comics, I immediately felt a natural connection to it. At the Tilburg art academy with the long name, my tutors had little appreciation for these artists. But out of the corner of my left eye, I spotted another artist from Brabant who fundamentally questioned painting and the art of painting: JCJ Vanderheyden. For me, his work served as a link between my American heroes and my European roots. The decision to create a painting is never neutral, and as an artist you must constantly account for that choice. Engaging in a constant dialogue with your medium is a means of making visible what has been seen.

 

I never actively searched for JCJ Vanderheyden, yet time and again I came across him in exhibitions and museums, and each time he served as a confirmation and a reminder of the path I wished to follow as a painter. Initially, this involved the frames and other ways of echoing the shape of the canvas; later, his photographs (particularly the aeroplane windows) and horizons were added to this. And again and again, that sky-blue. Now that I’ve been delving into the literature (thank you, René Korten), I’ve only just realised how close he really is. His quest for the unspeakable, the silence, the sublime – without losing touch with mundane reality. A father figure (my father was born in 1925) whom, fortunately, I am only now really getting to know and against whom I no longer need to rebel.

 

Kees Barten, 2026

 

 

 

 

Kees Barten (NL)

Kruissteenstraat 24.1

2024

casein tempera, varnish on plywood

32 x 23 cm

www.keesbarten.com

 

 

 

 

Carla Klein / Barnett Newman

 

 

Barnett Newman

The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani

1958-1966

series of fifteen paintings

magna, oil and acrylic on canvas

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

I saw this series by Barnett Newman in 2000 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and I was completely blown away. At that time, it was still on display in a dimly lit room. I was there all by myself, I had travelled to Washington alone, and that meant there was nothing standing between me and this series. Seeing the image again now takes me right back to that moment.

 

Carla Klein, 2026

 

 

Carla Klein
installation view solo exhibition Close Distance
KM21 Den Haag NL
2024

Carla Klein (NL)

Zonder Titel

2025

oil on canvas

170 x 240 cm

courtesy artist and Annet Gelink Gallery 

https://carlaklein.studio

 

Korrie Besems / Duane Michals

 

 

 

Duane Michals

This Photograph is My Proof

1967

gelatin silver print with hand-applied text

sheet 27.94 × 35.56 cm

image 16.98 × 25.24 cm

 

 

This photographic work of Duane Michals sat on my desk as a postcard for years.
The text beneath the photo reads:
“This photograph is my proof. There was that afternoon, when things were still good between us, and she embraced me, and we were so happy. It did happen. She did love me. Look, see for yourself!” USA, 1967
However, this photo proves absolutely nothing; it merely suggests. The combination of image and text shows what the photo alone cannot say, and at the same time, the work calls into question the reliability of the photographic image.

In the spring of 1983, as a young art student, I visited the exhibition Kunst mit Photographie at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In retrospect, this is one of the most influential exhibitions I have ever visited. The artworks prompted my decision to use photography as my primary medium.
It was there that I also saw work by Duane Michals (1932-2026) for the first time. In his work, which is always light in tone and full of wonder about the world, he explored the mysteries of memory, desire, mortality and the invisible dimensions of human experience in various ways. Dreams, spirituality, and sexuality also recurred frequently. He liked to use sequences, but it is primarily his black-and-white photographs combined with handwritten texts that have inspired me.

Early in my career, I caused something of a stir with large black-and-white photographs onto which I painted words or short phrases in color, an intervention that radically altered how the photographs were read.
I still work at the intersection of photography and language. Nowadays I call my method subjective data knitting. I use exclusively my own data, as it concerns photos from my own photo archive that I put through a digital shredder. In the void left behind by a disintegrated photo, a kind of infinite depth emerges, a poetic space in which words and fragments of text can surface. The words I use come from everywhere and nowhere. They emphasize the fragmented information that floods us daily or that manifests itself when a memory suddenly comes to life. It is information that triggers something but is not knowledge or proof of anything.
Through this method, the notions of place and time of the original photograph disappear completely. The still recognizable fragments of the photo and the words seem to search collectively for how feeling, time, doubt, and memories can give voice to the invisible. By breaking open photographs and welcoming words, an ocean full of possibilities emerges for new constructions of realities.

Although my work has gradually become more abstract, the influence of Duane Michals is still present. Each of us, in our own way and often through the addition of language, undermines the assumption that a photograph can capture a shared reality.

Korrie Besems, 2026

 

Korrie Besems (NL)
where echoes drown #4
2025
inkjet on Hahnemuhle Rag Bright White

various sizes
www.korriebesems.nl

Saskia de Marée / Co Westerik

 

 

Co Westerik

Pointing at the wound

2016

tempera, alkyd and oil on panel

50 x 65 cm

source: Fergus McCaffrey Gallery

 

 

Saskia de Marée

De lijn

2024

oil paint on linen

20 x 25 cm

 

 

 

In Co Westerik’s (1924-2018) works, I discover a remarkable depth of layers. Layers in which nature and humanity are transformed into fragile truths. And also layers of paint, a uniquely personal way of applying paint in many layers, from which the final image ultimately emerges.

The work feels very fragile and tactile, and continues to surprise with its idiosyncratic way of thinking and imagination.

The rounded forms and subdued colors abstract his figuration and soften his subjects. I find it most beautiful when the figuration recedes and the layered and blended colored dots, planes, and stripes take over, forming a breathing, mystical whole.

 

When René Korten approached me for his blog 'Nothing But Good', I was reminded of Co Westerik’s work, certainly because of the qualities of his art, but also because I have recently been, and still am, in a long-term recovery process following surgery on my foot. That feeling of being small and vulnerable is very much expressed in his work, as is the grandeur of nature of which we are all a part.

 

In my own painting practice, I explore aspects of organic forms, environments, and still lifes, while also seeking a reversibility, twists in understanding or in what one sees. For example, I have created series of works in which the landscape is treated as an object, and contrasting works in which the object is approached in a landscape-like, almost geographical manner.

These are shifts in both painterly and thematic aspects; the work is about boundaries and the desire to push beyond them. It is also purely about painting and abstraction, in which space is created within the depicted image for renewed meaning.

 

Saskia de Marée, 2026

 

Co Westerik

Vinger tussen grassen
2010

tempera, alkyd and oil on linen
70 x 93 cm

source: www.westerik.nl

 

 

 

 

Saskia de Marée (NL)

Hay (from the series the object as a landscape)

2025

mixed media on linen

50 x 60 cm

www.saskiademaree.nl

Erna Anema / Kazimir Malevich

 

 

Kazimir Malevich

Yellow Plane in Dissolution
1917-1918
109 x 73,5 x 4,5 cm
oil on canvas
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

 

 

 

 

In my paintings I investigate boundaries. Wherever colors differ from one another more than they resemble each other, a boundary arises. This, in my view, is what painting is about, and I first realized this when I saw the painting 'Yellow Plane in Dissolution' (1917–1918) by Kazimir Malevich. 

 

In addition, the characteristics of Suprematism are: simple geometric forms, a limited color palette, and a focus on abstraction in which the emotional experience of both the maker and the viewer in relation to the subject is important. Although the series in which I paint always have a landscape as their point of departure, and they represent a translation into abstraction. Presented here are several works from my glacier series.

 

Erna Anema, 2026

 

 

 

Erna Anema

Morene A2

2023

120 x 180 cm

oil on canvas

 

 

Erna Anema (NL)

Morene B3

2023

40 x 60 cm

oil on canvas

https://ernaanema.nl