Pieter Jansz. Saenredam
Interieur van de Sint-Odulphuskerk in Assendelft
1649
oilpaint on panel
49,6 × 75 cm
Pieter Jansz. Saenredam
Het oude stadhuis in Amsterdam
1657
oilpaint on panel
65,5 × 84,5 cm
When I was at the Rietveld Academy I wanted to become Jackson Pollock, or Willem de Kooning. Abstract, virtuoso and expressive. That way of painting also had many similarities with the guitar music of Jimi Hendrix, another childhood hero of mine. Later I discovered that abstract art was not for me. I started painting reality and worked more cerebral. I became fascinated by art from the Middle Ages, but also by Saenredam, a great master from the 17th century. His interior paintings are created by observing endlessly. The drawings he made while visiting a building were sometimes only converted into paintings decades later. Only then did he also apply modification, for the benefit of the composition or other qualities of the final image.
That's how he mainly painted in his head and I recognize that well, although he was of course a much greater artist than I will ever be. The calm and tranquility in his painted spaces is beautiful, it is overwhelmingly quiet. The light often radiates from behind, as if the painting itself illuminates the actual space where you are as a viewer.
Toon Berghahn, 2024
Toon Berghahn
Jacobs ladder
2024
mixed media on wood
104 x 62 cm
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