Luc Hoekx / Jorge de Oteiza

Jorge de Oteiza

Caja Vacia

1958

iron and copper

29,5 x 30,6 x 32,6 cm

Even more than by other painters (  ), I was inspired by sculptors and architects. A real eye-opener to me was this work by Jorge de Oteiza (Spain, 1908-2003).

The design is as complex as simple. It tells me how I look at space and form, although the work remains enigmatic.

As an icon in geometric abstract tradition, it is also an early announcement of deconstructivism.

Luc Hoekx, 2015

Luc Hoekx (BE)

Raum

2011

oil on aluminium

70 x 80 cm

www.luchoekx.be

Bert Frings / Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde

Masks, Still Life

1911

oil on canvas

73 x 77,5 cm

'The Broken Ear' seems to be a spontaneous and expressive painting, however it is made slow and deliberate. The work is loosely based on a painting by Emil Nolde, a German Expressionist, who was briefly a member of Die Brücke. Since I can remember I have been fascinated by expressionism. Especially since I saw paintings by Heckel, Kirchner and Nolde at a young age.

There are a hundred years between his 'Masks, Still Life' from 1911 and my painting 'The Broken Ear'. I very much like his revolutionary painting. I look at it as a hymn of praise to other until then unknown cultures. A courageous painting of artifacts, masks, represented with radical gesture in radiant colors, made by an individual, receptive to the unknown and mysterious. This seems so contradictory with his ideas and thoughts. A brilliant work but the more I try to learn both about work and the life of one of the most famous artists ever, the less I understand.

The title of my painting is both a nod to Hergé because of his stereotypical characterizations and questions about his alleged collaboration with Germany, but even more a tribute to the Arumbaya people.

Bert Frings, december 2014

Bert Frings (NL)

The Broken Ear

2011

acrylic on canvas

70 x 70 cm

www.bertfrings.nl

Joseba Eskubi / Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán

Agnus Dei

1635–1640

oil on canvas

38 × 62 cm

Museo del Prado, Madrid

The animal becomes an island, a solitary figure in front of the abyss and the silence. I am fascinated by this image, how all the little details create a landscape frozen in time. The light illuminates the scene and reveals us the material as something new and amazing.

Joseba Eskubi, 2014

Joseba Eskubi (ES)

Untitled

2014

oil on canvas

55 x 46 cm

www.josebaeskubi.com

Bruno Dunley / George Braque

George Braque

Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Mantelpiece

1911

oil on canvas

81 x 60 cm

Bruno Dunley (BR)

untitled

2014

oil on canvas

200 x 150 cm

http://www.nararoesler.com.br/en/artists/35-bruno-dunley

Damien Meade / All Dead Painters

 
Hand stencils

Cueva de El Castillo

Cantabria, Spain

c. 35,000 BCE

People die, and things survive them. We look for meaning everywhere, fervently in the things of the dead. But some of these things are constructed in such a way that they seem to activate and respond to our random projections, feeding on them, and swelling into a feedback loop of call and response. Paintings are these things. C.S. Peirce defines an index as a category of sign that maintains a physical tie to its referent. Every painting is indexical, an index of consciousness itself. In work, every painter is like a deaf-mute. So in death, there is no voice lost, but consciousness prevails.

Damien Meade, 2014

Damien Meade (IE/BG)

Untitled

2013

oil on linen on board

46.5 x 35.5 cm

 

Damien Meade (IE/BG)

Structure no.2

2014

oil on linen on board

42 x 52 cm

www.damienmeade.com

Bart Vandevijvere / Marthe Wéry

Marthe Wéry

1994

acrylic on wood

59 x 51 cm

The wonderful fundamental and a-referent painting of Marthe Wéry has a high sensitivity. The perception of it demands an open, unconditioned attitude: a slow process, as the opposite of today's quick and pre-cooked consumerism.

The work 'Toru' refers to a same kind of spirit and painterly approach. It's dedicated to the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.

Bart Vandevijvere, 2014

'... painting is the creation of an analogy for the invisible and the unintelligible, which should become figure and should become accessible ... Good paintings are therefore incomprehensible ... They are incomprehensible so that they cannot be consumed and remain essential ...' 

Gerhard Richter quoted in an essay by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, entitled 'Richter's facture: between the synecdoche and the spectacle'

Bart Vandevijvere (BE)

Toru

2014 

acrylic, water on canvas

100 x 80 cm

www.bartvandevijvere.be

Shaan Syed / Ad Reinhardt

Ad Reinhardt

This may be a really bad quality shot of an Ad Reinhardt painting, but it’s also a brilliantly savy shot of an Ad Reinhardt painting and someone’s hand. Reinhardt’s paintings were never meant to be photographed. He deliberately tried to make his paintings un-photographable. The colour and surface variations were so subtle that even today’s cameras can’t give an accurate representation of what our eyes can see and adjust to when in front of them. I imagine Reinhardt was a prickly character. His paintings were about a focused refusal, just as his political cartoons satirised and revealed the fallacies of certain facets of art world thinking. Whoever decided to put his hand in front of this Reinhardt painting as the picture was being snapped probably understood this very well.

Shaan Syed, 2014

 

Shaan Syed (CA/UK)

Stage Right (Dark Green Horizontal With Double Swipe)

2013

oil and polyfilla on canvas

212 x 198 cm

www.shaansyed.com