Sunday 3 June 2018

Auke de Vries / Hans Memling



Hans Memling
Bathseba im Bade (detail on postcard)
ca. 1485
oil on panel
191 x 84 cm
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart



Hans Memling
(backside postcard)




There are no direct predecessors or examples for my sculptures like the Maasbeeld (1982) or the Floriade monument (2002). Nevertheless Gordon Matta-Clark is an important artist for me because of his way of thinking about spatiality. He is unique in his handling of buildings and volumes. He starts from something that is already there and does an intervention that completely changes the spatiality.

But here I choose the painting 'Bathsheba im Bade' by Hans Memling. When I am traveling I always have a postcard with me of a detail of the work showing her head. This is an important point of reference to me. It is enchanting and transcends everything, it offers me a grip in the world of art (which is something other than the art world). Every time again this image is proof to me that art is infinitely important.

Auke de Vries asks his wife Marijke de Wit to select one of his works to combine here with Memling. She chooses Untitled, a small sculpture from 2009 for the interior space. The work is her personal favourite, it gives her a delicate feeling, like the postcard of Memling does to Auke. It may not be sold and must return after each exhibition.

Auke also asks me to choose a work for this post. I choose Für Daphne, a large sculpture he made for Magdeburg in 2001. It is a monumental work, but in it I experience the same refined elegance as in Memlings painting.

Noted on behalf of Auke de Vries,
René Korten, 2018





Auke de Vries
Untitled
2009
painted metal
83 x 73 x 30 cm
collection artist



Auke de Vries (NL)
Für Daphne
1999-2001
painted metal
h 25 m
Magdeburg, Germany




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