Lode Laperre / Utagawa Hiroshige

 

Utagawa Hiroshige

Okabe: The narrow, ivy-covered path at Mount Utsu

1855, Edo (Tokio)

colour woodcut on Japanese paper

36 x 23 cm 

Utagawa Hiroshige

The ferry at Kawaguchi and the Zenkō temple

1857, Edo (Tokio)

colour woodcut on Japanese paper

34 x 22 cm 

 

 

 

Utagawa Hiroshige, Japanese printmaker and painter, was particularly renowned for his landscape prints, such as the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”. His woodcuts had a great influence on other printmakers. Hiroshige's work was also popular in the West at the end of the 19th century with collectors and artists, such as Van Gogh and Gauguin.

My fascination with Eastern civilizations and visual cultures led me to increasingly explore similarities, differences and frictions between Eastern and Western visual languages, in an attempt to unify and integrate them into my work. The meditation and thoughts that arose from this, produced an amalgam of new visual elements and techniques - as often happens with me. Certain works, for example the painting “Subaru (Manga)”, bear traces of Japanese printmaking, both in form and content. It is mainly Hiroshige's woodcuts that sharpened my view on this medium. I find the simplicity, the clarity and the accuracy in composition, execution and presentation very special.

 

Lode Laperre, 2022

Lode Laperre (BE)

Subaru (Manga)

2021

acrylic on canvas

180 x 140 cm

www.lodelaperre.be

Jacqueline Peeters / Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann 

Sommer

1930 

oil on canvas

37,4 x 28,5 cm

München Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen 

 

 

 

One of my first loves was Max Beckmann. On Sundays, my parents took us to the Van Abbemuseum, a short walking distance from where we lived. That is where I saw Beckmann’s 'Winterlandschaft' (Winterbild, Winter Landscape): an open window, the glass partly frosted or fogged, with a view on a snow-covered black tree. 

 

(on our way home we would climb John Rädecker’s horse statues placed at the entrance of the museum) 

 

I am also fond of Beckmann’s painting 'Sommer'. It is quite small, about 40 x 30 cm. It depicts two lovers in a shed, in the countryside, on a summer day. I love the intimacy and the black darkness of the shed, with the couple partly covered under a red blanket. They are surrounded by the yellow ochre warmth of the hill and the coolness of the green fields and the water. The zigzagging lines make the scene dynamic. The open shed is in contrast to the closeness between the couple. As if they are saying: Look at us! The painting exudes tenderness and longing, perhaps also despair. It may be the end of summer. It may be the last rendez-vous. 

 

The website of the Hamburger Kunsthalle has a catalogue raisonné of Beckmann’s paintings, including a list of alternative titles for each of his works. Titles are an essential part of my work. Sometimes they become small poems. Sommer, Liebespaar (Sommertag), Summer (Lovers), Sommertag mit Liebespaar, Kleine Gebirgslandschaft. 

 

Jacqueline Peeters, 2022 

Jacqueline Peeters 

left:
Nightstand 
2022 
oil on canvas 
190 x 120 cm 

right:

Made bed 
2022
oil on canvas, and two sheets of paper
110 x 200 cm

Jacqueline Peeters 
Edna Offenbach to Lee Le Gac 
2019
oil on canvas 
160 x 200 cm 

Jacqueline Peeters (NL/BE)
Liebespaar 
2021
oil on canvas 
150 x 200 cm 

floor:

Worn or stained, gashes gray 
2021
oil on canvas
130 x 240 cm 

www.instagram.com/jacq.peeters

www.jacquelinepeeters.com