Seet van Hout / Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke

Chinesisches Meer

1983

violet pigment, synthetic enamel on canvas

180 x 150 cm

Nicht allein dass er Materialien kombiniert, die für ihn in dieser Mischung bislang unerprobt sind: Bleimennige als Untermalung, violettes Pigment und Öl; er traktiert sie auch derart, dass die Grenzen des Kontrollierbaren bewusst überschritten werden. In dieser Weise wird der Zufall erneut eingespielt.

Martin Hentschel – Katalog : Sigmar Polke, Die drei Lügen der Malerei

Not just that he combined materials in mixtures that he had never tried before: red lead underpainting, violet pigment and oil paint: in addition he now also maltreated them to the extent that he consciously overstepped the limits of control. Thus chance was again incorporated into the works.

Martin Hentschel - Catalogue: Sigmar Polke, The Three Lies of Painting

 

Seet van Hout (NL) 

Black Iris

2013

acrylic and embroidery on canvas

200 x 150 cm

www.nouvellesimages.nl

Lisa Couwenbergh / Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes

Portinari Triptych

1475

oil on panel

253 x 586 cm

Hugo van der Goes

Portinari Triptych

detail (right panel)

Hugo van der Goes is one of my favorite painters, as well as Rogier van der Weyden, Max Beckmann, Hans Memling, Lucien Freud, Ferdinand Hodler, Dirk Bouts, Grünewald, El Greco, Ghirlandaio, Lucas Cranach, Mantegna, Holbein, Philips Koninck, Fouquet, Clara Peeters, Zurbarán, Giorgio de Chirico, Vermeer, Mondrian, Fra Angelico, Caspar David Friedrich, Philip Guston, Georf Flegel, Balthasar van der Ast, etc, etc.

 
On the side panel of the Portinari Triptych by Hugo van der Goes in the Uffizi in Florence, you see the saints Margaret and Mary Magdalene. Smaller portrayed are Maria Portinari, the wife of the one who commissioned the triptych, with her daughter Margaret. Between mother and daughter, a huge monster emerges. Curiously enough, in most descriptions of the painting that monster is not noticed. It looks much like a toad. Toads were granted magical powers. St Margaret would have been swallowed by a monster and then spewed out again. That symbolizes the power of overcoming the darkness of the subconscious.
 
My painting 'The Cabinet' is also populated with monsters. They have no symbolic meaning, but they arose while painting, from the subconscious.

Lisa Couwenbergh, 2013

Lisa Couwenbergh (NL)
The Cabinet
2012
acrylic on canvas
260 x 235 cm
www.lisacouwenbergh.com

Gideon Rubin / Manet

Manet

Olympia

1863

oil on canvas

130,5 x 190 cm

"...you would hardly believe, my dear fellow, how difficult it is to clap a solitary figure on a canvas and to concentrate the entire interest on that one solitary figure without it ceasing to be lively and full" 

Manet in a letter to Proust, 1880

Gideon Rubin (IL/UK)

Untitled (Yellow Bed)

2012

oil on linen

30 x 35 cm

www.gideonrubin.com

Olphaert den Otter / Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright of Derby

An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump

1768

oil on canvas
183 x 244 cm

Long has been thought that the vacuum could not exist. God had created everything from nothing. Besides the creation, the existence of a not was unthinkable. The vacuum would be a critical note in His omnipotence. Impossible! Until the invention of the vacuum pump showed that the vacuum was just men's work.
"An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump" by Joseph Wright of Derby from 1768 captures a great moment. The scientist, with almost priestly features, will soon save the cockatoo's life by removing the vacuum in which it is located. So he plays for God. Everyone in the company responds to the dramatic event in a manner consistent with his or her character or stage of life. And the viewer experiences the birth of the secular religion of science. This painting exemplifies the ability of telling a great story in all its nuances within an image.
I add my own work "Paolo e Francesca".
Olphaert den Otter, 2013

 

Olphaert den Otter  (NL)
Paolo e Francesca
2012
egg tempera on canvas / panel
50 x 81 cm
www.olphaertdenotter.nl