Nothing But Good: April 2014

Saturday, 26 April 2014

Piet Dieleman / Krijn Giezen

Krijn Giezen

(From his mailorder catalogue: www.stroom.nl/krijngiezen/mailorder)

Krijn Giezen

Kijk Uit Attention

2005

staircase of 300 steps, offering a unique view of the surroundings of the Hoge Veluwe

Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo NL

In addition to all superlatives, this tribute goes to the one who has shown me the road of and towards the arts: Krijn Giezen (1939-2011).

Piet Dieleman, 2014

The anarchic humor of Fluxus, with an emphasis on play and self-devised rules, was the basis for many of his actions and objects. In his work he combined the robust nature with the ingenuity of farmers, fishermen and craftsmen. Recipes, manuals and inventions were noted by him, and processed in visual documentation. Nostalgia was not his motive, but he longed to preserve useful and essential aspects from nature and human action, and re-invigorate them. The scale on which he realized his work ranged from tiny to overwhelming.

From www.stroom.nl/paginas/pagina.php?pa_id=4153164

Piet Dieleman (NL)

Design for a sculpture

2014

6000 x 4000 x 10000 mm

www.pietdieleman.nl

Saturday, 19 April 2014

Sabine Tress / Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Cadillac Moon

1981

acrylic and crayon on canvas

161,9 x 172,1 cm

I fell in love with Jean-Michel Basquiat's work when I was in art college in Paris. I saw a show at Musee Galerie de la Seita, Paris in 1993 and from then on I read everything about him that I can put my hands on. He really lived his art. He was his paintings. His immense energy but also the fact that he painted like he was driven…I still find that very inspiring. I am not trying to romanticize him. It just feels like he had things to say, that he was angry and passionate and clever and sweet. And all that can be found within his work. Last year I saw a huge show about collaborative works he did with Warhol and Clemente at Ausstellungshalle Bonn. I stood in front of his works and got drawn in again…into his universe. I also felt the freshness of his paintings. They were very much alive. I suppose what I love most about JMB´s work is that it is very personal and that it goes straight to your heart. At least it does that to me.

Sabine Tress, 2014

Sabine Tress (DU)

St Lucia

2014

oil on canvas

110 x 100 cm

www.sabinetress.de

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