Saturday 25 October 2014

Henri Jacobs / Enguerrand Quarton



Enguerrand Quarton
La Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
ca 1455-1460
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre Paris


Thought
Could the first-ever drawing have been a single line drawn in the sand, or a line drawn with charcoal? Or was it the print of a hand covered with mud? Or the negative of that hand by using a spray of mud over the hand on a stone surface.
So, was it a single line in sand or a line of charcoal, the print of a hand, the leftover of a hand?
Or could the first drawing have been made by five fingertips dipped in mud to draw five short lines?
I suppose there wasn’t any idea or plan. The acting person didn’t foresee what she or he was doing, perhaps she was surprised or even enchanted.
As in Stanley Kubrick’s film '2001 A Space Odyssey' apes were surprised while playing to discover that a bone could be a weapon with which to hit other apes. From that moment civilization was born.
Henri Jacobs, 2014



Henri Jacobs (NL/BE)
Ecriture pictographique no 1
2007
oil pastel wall drawing
Galerie Paul Andriesse Amsterdam

Saturday 18 October 2014

Johan de Haas / Rein Draijer




Rein Draijer
Tafelberg Zuid-Afrika
1958
oil on canvas
96 x 120 cm


Rein Draijer is a versatile artist (1899-1986), painter, sculptor, designer of stamps and a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. His work exudes a strong, sober and simple vision of reality. Both realistic and abstract values ​​form a cohesive unit. As a very valued teacher Rein Draijer taught us ordering perception as well as handling visual elements and materials.

I myself am a painter, restorer and a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem. In particular, I have focused on the handling of materials and the significance of light in that.'Monochroom Vaalgroen' (Monochrome Pale Green) is one-colored. The differences in color, light-dark and cool-warm are caused by the handling of tools that have left traces. In 'Composition', color, shape and handling of material can be observed simultaneously and therefore are interchangeable.
Johan de Haas, 2014




Johan de Haas
Monochroom Vaalgroen
1983
oil on panel
25 x 66 cm
collection Provincie Gelderland


 
Johan de Haas (NL)
Grijsgloed
1990
oil on panel
46 x 46 cm
collection Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
www.johandehaas.nl

Saturday 11 October 2014

Anet van de Elzen / Louise Bourgeois



Louise Bourgeois
Portrait Louise Bourgeois
by Robert Mapplethorpe  
1982, printed 1991
photograph, gelatine silver print on paper
37,5 x 37,4 cm 


Louise Bourgeois - the photo of Robert Mapplethorpe really tells best why I admire her. Her life and work are interwoven, she is the work and the work is her. But of course it is actually a portrait, which again is in line with my work.
Anet van de Elzen, 2014

The work she produces does not stand for Anet van de Elzen. ‘It won't give you a glimpse of the identity of the artist', says one of the authors of this book, Brian Catling. The work stands for the viewer. There is nothing in between, not even Anet van de Elzen. In fact she goes one step further: she dissolves in her work. For her it is simply the natural thing to do. Everything Anet van de Elzen is not in daily life, she is in her work. ‘What it is not is an everyday thing'. You will recognize it as how you, the onlooker, experience her work. It is not an experience that can be shared with others; you can talk about it, perhaps, but you cannot share the other's feelings. Whatever you see has a different meaning than what another sees in it. You need to look for the significance of this work in yourself, not in the artist. When she talks about it, she talks about the manifestation of the image and how it came into being, about the physical form it has taken, but not about the effect it produces.
Alex de Vries, part of his text 'The inner plumb line' in Un beso al cielo, retrospective catalogue of Anet van de Elzen 2004




Anet van de Elzen
Untitled
2012
B & W photograph, gelatine silver print
110 x 75 cm 
 
 
Anet van de Elzen
Taste - One of five senses
Performance at Fierce Festival in Birmingham 
2013
photo by Nils Kenninck



Anet van de Elzen (NL)
X
From Echo the Now
2014
30 second clip
www.anetvandeelzen.com


Monday 6 October 2014

luc vandervelde lux / Albrecht Dürer



Albrecht Dürer
Study of Drapery
1521
brush drawing on paper
20,8 x 21 cm (framed: 47,9 x 40 x 3,9 cm)
Albertina, Vienna


Albrecht Dürer is one of the biggest influencers in my life. His work is why I chose to become an artist. I admired the versatility in his art. His drawings and self portraits are from an indescribable beauty.
Even though my work stems from a completely different type of output, it is very much influenced by Albrecht Dürer.
When I saw the picture 'the Study of a Drapery' it was so refreshing to me despite the fact it’s from 1521. It inspired me so much that it created a totally new turning point in my work and transformed the types of artistic pieces I produce. From that moment on I stopped using traditional painting materials. 
luc vandervelde lux, 2014




luc vandervelde lux (BE)
Untitled (1521)
mixed media on wooden frame