Friday 22 July 2016

Bart Lodewijks / Jeroen Bodewits




Jeroen Bodewits
Heritage (Наследие)
Russian Series
2013
wood, IKEA laminate, metal, epoxy
ca. 95 x 180 x 400 cm


THE GREATS

JEROEN
"Theo, Danielle, Tobias, Esther, Marjon, Hans, Tobias, Hanneke, Huig, Arjan, Maarten, Emiel, Judith, Frank and Jeroen." I chant some names of people who arrived at the art academy St. Joost together with me in 1991. In retrospect, I can say with certainty that they influenced my work more than the artists who fill the museum galleries or artbooks. After art school most of my sources of inspiration disappeared out of sight. Every now and then I heard something of such or such, but after four years it became apparent that my year group had barely produced professional artists. Most of them have become successful people in other sections of society, not necessarily in the arts. They are all people, often with families, who unfortunately do not qualify to be included in this blog, because it should be about the 'dead'. My year group yielded one dead artist. One of us was snatched away from life brutally. The chills run down my spine when I think about the car accident on the Antwerp ring road, two summers ago already.
Currently Jeroen has the entire hall of the dead of the academic year 1991/95 for himself alone. Indeed a solo, but one that came too early. Is that a comforting thought? With foresight, I declare that he will receive all of us, his fellow students up there at some point. He will do well. In life he wanted a reunion, at least that's what he told me when we met at an opening by chance, a week before the fatal accident.

BODEWITS
A Russian soul creeps into his work already at the art academy. I notice that his last name is of Russian origin. His sculptures are becoming increasingly layered and cover more rooms. As a viewer you seek, get lost and leave the labyrinth with something other than what you came for. Innocent-looking details in his work turn out demonic on closer inspection. Jeroen could speak very clear about the world covered with mystery. He was, after all, at home. He knew the way to the tsarist court before he took one step in Russia.
He managed to travel far without setting off. This defied my imagination. Mind you, we were not even nineteen and didn't travel the world. How did he manage to guide 'us' so excellent through the unknown? He went to the real Russia later. A period where I lost sight of him for a while.
Jeroen articulated, he was cautious and wary too. Before he undertook something or started a new sculpture, he prepared meticulously for the adventure. You can recognize this in his sculptures. They lie there like relics that are preserved for eternity. The narrative character of his images continues to inspire me. As to caution and preservation, as in many other respects, however, we were very different from each other. Going on a journey together failed, but our lives continued to intersect. "You are so different from me. We are a kind of opposites that reinforce one another", so we said to each other a week before the big solo came.
Now only his work is visible. It takes me back to the beginning when we met and wanted to be artists. It brings me back to the greats: Theo, Danielle, Tobias, Esther, Marjon, Hans, Tobias, Hanneke, Hugh, Arjan, Martin, Emiel, Judith, Frank and Jeroen.

Bart Lodewijks
Gent, March 24, 2016



Bart Lodewijks (NL/BE)
Diepenheim
2016
chalk lines on homes in Diepenheim, part of project DRAWING FRONT
(photo R. Korten)



Saturday 9 July 2016

Janus Metsaars / Jan Mankes



Jan Mankes    
Parelhoen
1917
oil on panel
27,5 x 37,5 cm
Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen: loan private collection



My first conscious encounter with the work of Jan Mankes was in Museum Belvédère in Heerenveen. Han Steenbruggen combined our works together in a cabinet in the exhibition Reshuffle in 2008.

From an interview with Han Steenbruggen by Henk Sletterink in MB-0 dec. 2008:

Not all combinations in the exhibition Reshuffle are obvious. Jan Mankes and Janus Metsaars for example.
And precisely that combination was the first that came to my mind. In both their works lies the need to grasp the bigger mystery in the things around us. And while attempting to fathom these secrets they lay their souls bare. What I like so much in both the work of Mankes and Metsaars is that matter dissolves before your eyes and becomes immaterial, however different their technique is.

And it does not matter that the one works realistic and the other abstract?
I do not see any difference. If you look closer at this guinea fowl by Jan Mankes you surely see the subtleties of color and tone, your eye disappears into that beautiful color glow. Then you feel that the guinea is reason to evoke emotions that lie much deeper. It's pure abstraction. Metsaars does no different. He sees the evening light reflect in water or moss grow on a tree .. They both connect a sort of cosmic consciousness with earthly things. At least that's how I experience it.



Janus Metsaars
Oerzee
2015
pigment. binder, linen
30 x 35cm
collection Museum Belvédère, purchased in 2016 



Janus Metsaars (NL)
Oerruimte
2015
pigment, binder, linen
30 x 35cm
collection Museum Belvédère, purchased in 2016 
www.janusmetsaars.nl