Sunday 21 April 2013

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

Saturday 13 April 2013

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



Sunday 7 April 2013

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

Monday 1 April 2013

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