Rinus Van de Velde – Donogoo Tonka

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’ – boat (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

Rinus Van de Velde – exhibition view ‘Donogoo Tonka’ in SMAK

Rinus Van de Velde (Belgium, 1983) works big. The core of his work consists of very large charcoal drawings on canvas. The drawings are the end result of an exciting process that takes approximately one month: he looks for illustrations, makes real life stage sets, directs, acts, photographs and finally draws a selected photograph. To the drawings he then adds text.
He likes to have friends around in his studio and involves them in the preparation of his images, sometimes engages them to pose and to contribute to the accompanying texts.

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’- car (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’ – the bar (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

In his second exhibition at S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium) Rinus Van de Velde visualises the novel “Donogoo Tonka ou les miracles de la science” (1920) by the French  author Jules Romains. He has converted this satire on capitalism and the ideology of progress into a storyboard of nine scenes in which he plays the leading character. Using drawings, texts on the wall and stage set elements he has constructed a mesmerising installation.

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’ – papers (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’ – psychiatrist (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

Rinus Van de Velde – work from ‘Donogoo Tonka’ – jungle (2015-16, charcoal on canvas)

Rinus Van de Velde – Sweet and intoxicating reverie (boat), 2016

Rinus Van de Velde – exhibition view ‘Donogoo Tonka’ in SMAK with stage set wave in forefront

His friend Koen Sels contributes a lot to the accompanying texts and also interviewed Rinus while working in his studio. It’s a very interesting read if you want to know more about Rinus Van de Velde. Find it here.
Exhibition still on view in S.M.A.K. till 5 June 2016 – highly recommended and if you manage to visit don’t miss the work Rinus Van De Velde made in situ in the museum café.
All pictures are taken by me in the exhibition.

Sculptures by Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock is well known for his unique style of action painting. But did you know he made sculptures too?
I discovered some of his sculptural work in the exhibition Jackson Pollock – Blind Spots.

Jackson Pollock – Untitled, 1949 (wire dipped in plaster and paint)

At the beginning of his career, Jackson Pollock was set more on sculpture than painting. In a letter to family, dated 1933, Pollock said:

I am devoting all my time to sculpture now – cutting in stone during the day and modelling at night – it holds my interest deeply – I like it better than painting – drawing is the essence of all.

Jackson Pollock – Stone Head, c1930-33 (stone)

Stone Head was made by Pollock in the early 1930’s when he was about 18 or 19 years old. This carved basalt head is the first recorded three dimensional work by Pollock. It was made under influence of the sculptor Ahron Ben-Shmuel (1903-84) with whom Pollock studied and later apprenticed after his move to New York in September 1930.

Sculpting was something Pollock would turn to in hard times, when painting – or life – was proving difficult. A collaboration with his friend, the sculptor Tony Smith, would be the last creative endeavour he would undertake before his death in a car crash in 1956 aged 44.

Jackson Pollock – Untitled, 1956 (plaster, sand, gauze and wire)

Tony Smith and Jackson Pollock met in the late 1940s at the time Pollock was making some of his greatest paintings. While their work shares little stylistically, their many shared interests included Native American sand painting, modern architecture, and the writing of James Joyce, and they quickly became close friends. Pollock was a painter who loved to make sculpture and Smith was an architect who loved to paint and finally found his calling in sculpture.

The sculptures Pollock made at Tony Smith’s home in 1956 are constructions of wire, gauze, and plaster. Shaped by sand-casting, they have a heavily textured surface similar to what Pollock often sought in his paintings.

Jackson Pollock – Untitled, 1956 (plaster, sand, gauze and wire)

Jackson Pollock – Untitled, 1956 (plaster, sand, gauze and wire). In the background Number 12, 1952

Pollock’s experiments in media such as papier-mâché and sand-casting show an interesting insight in his creative process or should we say “creative play”. We can even detect his sculptural impulse in his efforts to animate the surfaces of his paintings by attaching found objects such as bees or cigarette butts.

Jackson Pollock – Number 3, 1949: Tiger (oil paint, enamel paint and cigarette butts on canvas on board)

Pictures shown are taken by me in the exhibition Blind Spots – my apologies for the poor quality.

Blind spots – Jackson Pollock

“I like to use a dripping fluid paint… The method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than to illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”
J. Pollock 1951

Jackson Pollock – Convergence: Number 10, 1952 (oil on canvas)

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is one of the most influential and provocative American artists of the 20th century. Between 1947 and 1950, Pollock perfected his revolutionary drip technique: he poured, dripped and flicked paint from the end of a brush or stick over a piece of canvas stretched out on his studio floor. For the work Yellow Islands (below) Pollock poured black paint onto the canvas over which he added areas of yellow and crimson with a brush. He then lifted the canvas upright while the paint was still wet, allowing it to sag and run.

Jackson Pollock – Yellow Islands, 1952 (oil on canvas)

These iconic works are currently shown in the exhibition Jackson Pollock – Blind Spots at the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition goes on to explore the transformation of Pollock’s paintings in the following years to his ‘black paintings’ as they are often referred to. But also his explorations in other media such as drawing, printmaking and sculpture are generously shown. These ‘blind spots’ in Pollocks practice show an artist searching for expression of his ongoing inward struggle.

Jackson Pollock – Untitled (Black and White Polyptych) c1950 (Oil on canvas)

Black and White Polyptych (above), with its mini-compositions like a strip of film stills, is the earliest painting in which Pollock condensed scale, restricted his palette to monochrome, and worked in series. He continues to explores divisions in Number 7  and Portrait and a Dream (below).

Jackson Pollock – Number 7 (black paint on canvas)

Jackson Pollock – Portrait and a Dream, 1953 (oil and enamel on canvas)

Portrait and a Dream is considered one of Pollock’s last major artistic statements. During the final years of his life, as his battle with alcoholism worsened, Pollock painted only a handful of works. In this painting the face on the right has been interpreted as a self-portrait. The left half contains a black graphic of frenetic energy, which may represent the dream of the painting’s title.

Exhibition view of Jackson’s Pollock works on paper (DMA)

Jackson Pollock Blind Spots showing at Dallas Museum of Art

Blind Spots still on view in the Dallas Museum of Art till March 20, 2016.
Pictures shown are taken by me in the exhibition.

Venice Biennale 15: some field notes (1)

The Venice Biennale is like a candy shop for art lovers; so much to taste, to see and to discover!
Join me for a browse in my field notes taken during my visit. 

Artists continue to uncover the colonial past of their countries in their work.
I loved the work of Daniel Boyd (Australia, °1982). His huge canvasses are adorned with the characteristic lines and graphic swells of Aboriginal painting. Boyd has adopted traditional techniques to rework photographs, maps, and documents. The painted marks obscure the details of these images and in doing so he reflects on the silencing of indigenous voices in the writing of history.

Daniel Boyd, Untitled (TI1), 2015. Oil, charcoal and archival glue on polyester.

In his work for the Venice Biennale he drew inspiration from the adventure novel ‘Treasure Island’ (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Each image in his Treasure Island series pertains to a navigational chart of the Marshall Islands, which lie northeast of Australia. The paintings highlight the subjective nature of maps, which entangle geographic data with histories of power, conquest and discovery.

Daniel Boyd, Untitled (TI2), 2015. Oil, charcoal and archival glue on polyester.

Daniel Boyd, Untitled (TI3), 2015. Oil, charcoal and archival glue on polyester.

Daniel Boyd, Untitled (TI4), 2015. Oil, charcoal and archival glue on polyester.

Daniel Boyd, Detail Untitled (TI4), 2015.

The Belgian pavilion showed a thematic exhibition developed by Vincent Meessen which provides very interesting insights into what colonial encounters have produced.

Sammy Baloji – Essay on urban planning, 2013. 12 colour photographs each 80x120cm.

Sammy Baloji – Detail Essay on urban planning, 2013.

Sammy Baloji (DRCongo, °1978) who works in Brussels and Lubumbashi comments in Essay on urban planning on the fly control campaign in Lubumbashi in 1929. Each worker must bring 50 flies in order to receive his daily ration.

A remarkable installation Negative space A scenario generator for clandestine building in Africa by James Beckett (Zimbabwe, °1977) draws many visitors in the tiny room where it is set up. A robot arm takes wooden blocks (‘buildings’) from a shelf and places them neatly next to the corresponding text plate. People watch intrigued to what the robot reveals to them about clandestine building in Africa.

James Beckett – Negative space A scenario generator for clandestine building in Africa, 2015. Installation, 300x111x380cm.

James Beckett – Negative space A scenario generator for clandestine building in Africa, 2015 (still).

I will share more field notes from the Venice Biennale 2015 soon.
Please share your personal favourites in the comments!

The Pink Spy

Narcisse Tordoir – The Pink Spy (3), 2013 – 340x320cm, pastel on paper mounted on dibond.

Narcisse Tordoir (°1954) is a Belgian artist living and working in Antwerp. His monumental work ‘De-Light’ didn’t escape my attention during Art Brussels 2015. So I was looking forward to see some more of his work in person. This time not on a white gallery wall…

Garden of Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, Belgium.

The Museum Plantin-Moretus did a great job bringing contemporary art in its medieval home dedicated to the art and history of printing. Tordoir’s work is displayed in a library room and is called ‘The Pink Spy (3)’. The work belongs to ‘The Pink Spy’ series (2013) commenting on the unsettled world to which we all belong.

Narcisse Tordoir – The Pink Spy (3), 2015 – 56x47cm, collage.

Tordoir connects in this series with the tradition of Venetian late-Baroque painter Tiepolo. Tiepolo’s etchings the ‘Caprici’ and ‘Scherzi’ series depict a world of strangers and outcasts. The central figure is the ‘Oriental’, a metaphor for the artist, philosopher, poet and scientist. Tordoir also includes this figure in his tableaux vivants.

Narcisse Tordoir in the exhibited video explaining his work process.

In ‘The Pink Spy 3’ the image of the plaster cast of a dog corresponds with a drawing by Jacob Jordaens in the collection of the Museum Plantin-Moretus.
Tordoir’s way of working is illustrated in the adjacent room with a set of preparatory drawings and collages, a short video in which the artist explains his approach and also the plaster cast dog and the dog drawing of Jacob Jordaens.

Exhibit view Narcisse Tordoir-The Pink Spy in Museum Plantin-Moretus, Sep 2015.

Narcisse Tordoir – The Pink Spy (3), 2015 – 60x47cm, colour pencil on tracing paper.

The working process reveals an artist who thinks while drawing and sticking pieces of images together with brightly coloured tape. For Tordoir these are fundamental artistic investigations of the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of an image which can lead to a major engaged art work such as ‘The Pink Spy (3)’ dealing with consumption and pollution.

Still of ‘The Pink Spy (3)’ in the exhibition video.

Check website Narcisse Tordoir for more and far better pictures. Exhibition in Museum Plantin-Moretus can be visited till 3 Jan 2016.
All pictures shown are taken by me in the exhibition.

Painting Flowers – Anna Syberg

Anna Syberg – Forårsblomster i glasvase, 1900.

I’m still lingering in Denmark, but way back in time around 1900, when Anna Syberg was painting the flowers in her home and garden. I’m intrigued by women artists working more than 100 years ago. The view of society at that time was that women artists were creative amateurs by the side of their professional husbands. This view off course limited the women’s acceptance alongside their male counterparts and consequently the possibilities for exhibiting their art.

Anna Syberg – Blomstrende bladkaktus, 1903.

Anna Syberg (1870 Faaborg-1914 Copenhagen) together with her husband Fritz Syberg, was one of the “Funen Artists” who lived and worked on the Danish island of Funen. Anna Syberg was the mother of several children including the artist Ernst Syberg and the composer Franz Syberg.

Flower motifs from the window sill and the garden occupied her and were easily available. She painted mostly in watercolour with an underlying pencil drawing, often followed up with black ink details over the watercolour.

The year after her death in 1914, a memorial exhibition was held, and the founder of Faaborg Museum acquired many of her paintings. She thus achieved the recognition and acceptance that she had fought for in discussions with her brother, Peter Hansen, who was against women’s art being displayed at museums.

Anna Syberg – Evighedsblomster, 1904.

Anna Syberg – Kaktus fra Botanisk have, 1908.

Anna Syberg – Roser, 1902.

From Pisa, Italy, on Jan 14, 1912, she wrote to him:
“What a fuss you make. You voted against me at Faaborg Museum because of your oh so high ideals about guarding the virtue of Art in Denmark. You wrote that you didn’t want to spare me the knowledge that I and the other female artists have no significance in Danish art.”

Anna Syberg – Forårsblomster, 1903.

Anna Syberg – Fra dagligstuen i Pisa, 1911.

Anna Syberg only lived to age 44, but would have been very happy to know that Faaborg Museum values her artwork so highly, that it now fills two rooms. Two beautiful rooms!

For a short film on the life and works of Anna Syberg click here.

Home Works

In my field notes is some more Danish art inspiration to be found this summer. I was introduced to the work of Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen (°1971, lives in Berlin) at the 80 days of summer photo festival in Ghent, Belgium. The pictures of his series ‘Home Works’ impressed me, how he photographs children around the home in a romantic and at the same time a kind of raw way. The way he uses light to its full potential, the way his images make us long for an intimate, homely and simple world. Some may call it melancholy but in any case Joakim Eskildsen is a top photographer.

Check out Eskildsen’s gorgeous portfolio on his website with recent work shot in Cuba and the USA for Time.
All pictures shown are taken from his website with thanks.

Unstilled (paintings by Peter Doig)

Peter Doig, Grande Riviere, 2001-02. Oil on canvas, 229×358 cm.

I had the chance to see Peter Doig’s paintings in the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark this summer. It was an unforgettable experience to see his work in person.

Detail Grande Riviere, 2001-02.

I was particularly amazed by the painterly qualities, sometimes the paint seems to be thinned and marbled, almost watercolour like, and sometimes piled high in small dots.
Among Doig’s sources of imagery are his own photographs, captures from his videos, pictures from books, and details drawn from commercial advertising, travel posters and post cards. He kind of transforms these stilled images to unstilled subject matter. His large scale paintings seem to flow within their own time and space and as Doig says ‘I want to make people think about other things’.

Peter Doig, Figures in red boat, 2005-07. Oil on linen, 250×200 cm.

Detail Figures in red boat, 2005-07.

Peter Doig, Okahumkee (Some other people’s blues), 1990. Oil on canvas, 204×241 cm.

Detail Okahumkee (Some other people’s blues), 1990.

Peter Doig, Concrete Cabin II, 1992. Oil on canvas, 200×275 cm.

Detail Concrete Cabin II, 1992.

Peter Doig, Reflection (what does your soul look like), 1996. Oil on canvas, 295×200 cm.

Detail Reflection (what does your soul look like), 1996.

Peter Doig, Blotter, 1993. Oil on canvas, 249×199 cm.

Detail Blotter, 1993.

What Doig says in the catalogue about his time occupied in the studio applies also to what viewers encounter: “Painting is about working your way across the surface, getting lost in it. The large size of the paintings is about the idea of getting absorbed in them, so you physically get lost.” It was great to get lost in Doig’s paintings at Louisiana. Magical!

The beach at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, about 35 km north of Copenhagen.

See my post on Peter Doig’s prints here.
Peter Doig is on view in Lousiana till 16 Aug 2015.

All Colors Will Agree in the Dark

Ermias Kifleyesus – All Colors Will Agree in the Dark, 2014. Mixed media on venetian blinds, displayed at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium.

The first time I saw the work of Ermias Kifleyesus it hit home. One of his works was stuck to the ceiling of the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in the Biennale of Painting 2014 (Belgium). Close to it was a doodled work on blinds titled ‘All colors will agree in the Dark‘. How could I not remember an artwork with a title like that?

Ermias Kifleyesus – Milk, River and Honey, 2015. Mixed media on canvas, 180×135 cm.

Ermias Kifleyesus – Milk, River and Honey, 2015. Mixed media on canvas, detail.

Ermias Kifleyesus (°1974) was born in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) and lives and works in Brussels (Belgium). He makes drawings, paintings, films and installations.
Kifleyesus was granted a solo at Art Brussels 2015 (Gallery Kusseneers) and so while strolling through this art fair I took the time to discover more of his work.

Ermias Kifleyesus – Untitled, 2015. Mixed media on canvas, 45 × 89 cm.

In his recent work he started with damaged canvases left behind by second-hand traders at flea markets in Amsterdam. Using a chemical adhesive mix and sticking on thin cotton rags, Kifleyesus meticulously peels away the dirt, varnish and layers of paint from such a discovered composition. In this process, in which chance and imperfections play their parts, the resulting images give an insight into the artwork’s creation and degradation. Kifleyesus makes visible and destroys.

Ermias Kifleyesus – Horses, Eyes and Cars, 2015. Mixed media on canvas, 240×151 cm.

Before he has been focusing on a project located in international telephone cabins where he installed pieces of paper or canvas on the walls and tables that over time become covered with interactive marks, notations and traces that individuals leave as they talk on the telephones and wait for their calls to connect to all points of the globe. He visited the cabins every week and then finally removed the supports from the walls when he felt they were ready to complete in his studio.

Ermias Kifleyesus – Dance of the Branches, 2015. Mixed media on canvas, 196×143 cm.

Ermias Kifleyesus’ art engages existing marks and creations left behind by others. He wants to bring these together, rework, select and add to them. And in doing so he creates interesting personal notes on multiculturalism, migration, globalisation, over-consumption, and the overpopulation of large cities.

Read more about Ermias Kifleyesus on his website, the Gallery Kusseneers website who represents him in Belgium and Artsy.

First picture shown from Artsy © Ermias Kifleyesus, Courtesy of Kusseneers Gallery. All other pictures taken by me at Art Brussels.

A Second Life

The importance of an artist is to be measured by the number of new signs
he has introduced into the language of art.
Henri Matisse, 1942

Henri Matisse, Blue Nude (I), 1952.

I missed ‘The Cut-Outs’, the exhibition on Henri Matisse’s famous paper cut-outs which showed in Tate Modern, London and MoMA, NYC.

However, reading a tiny Penguin Book was a nice consolation. I borrowed ‘Henri Matisse, a second life‘ written by Alastair Sooke from my sister and found myself immersed in the surprising turn Matisse’s artistic life took after he was diagnosed with cancer.
One January morning in 1941, Matisse had just turned 71, he underwent a life saving surgery in Lyon. Only in May he came home to his apartment in Nice.To his son Pierre he wrote “It’s like being given a second life, which unfortunately can’t be a long one.”

Henri Matisse, The Snail, 1953.

He would survive for another 13 years, but due to his deteriorating health often compelled to use a wheelchair and frequently bedridden. In his last years, Matisse developed a thrilling new method of making art using scissors and painted sheets of paper that allowed him to work with brilliant colours even when he was bed bound.

In an astonishing burst of creativity, he produced hundreds of new works in his seemingly effortless late style that came to be known as his ‘paper cut-outs’.
Matisse created the cut-paper designs for Jazz, a book 20 colour plates, which was his first important cut-out project. The cut out forms quickly took over the walls in his apartment together with drawings in charcoal and ink.

Henri Matisse, The Horse, the Rider and the Clown, 1943-4, Maquette for plate V of the illustrated book Jazz, 1947.

Matisse himself considered the Chapel of the Rosary that he designed for the Dominican nuns at Vence to be his masterpiece. He called it “the culmination of a lifetime of work”. It might be an odd thing to say for an artist who had devoted most of his career to painting, but also for someone who considered himself an atheist. “When I go into the chapel, I feel that my whole being is there – at least everything that was best when I was a child” he said. Suffering from insomnia and anxiety throughout his life, Matisse could still create a sanctuary of tranquillity. Constructing it required “immense effort“, as the artist said, but the finished effect was effortless. This might well be the essence of Henri Matisse.

Henri Matisse, La perruche et la sirène, 1952-53, gouache, collage on paper on linnen, 337 x 768,5 cm.

Another chance to see Matisse’s cut-outs and other works is right there: “The Oasis of Matisse” at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from 27 Mar to 16 Aug 2015. I won’t miss this one!

Work/Travail/Arbeid

Work/Travail/Arbeid, 2015 from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (still)

Performing dance as an exhibition in a museum is not a common practice. But i must say, a highly engaging experience for the viewer!
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, the famous Belgian dancer-choreographer (°1960) was invited by WIELS (Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels) to make an exhibition as a performance and a performance as an exhibition – this resulted in Work/Travail/Arbeid. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker re-interpreted her stage piece Vortex Temporum set to the music of Gérard Grisey, to fit the museum space and she re-casted the choreography as a 9-week long exhibition.

Work/Travail/Arbeid, 2015 from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (still)

Work/Travail/Arbeid, 2015 from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (still)

Dancers from De Keersmaeker’s dance company Rosas and musicians from the Ictus ensemble perform live in the museum spaces, over the entire opening hours of the exhibition, for nine weeks. It is a truly exceptional experience to witness the unfolding of this work. I found it totally hypnotising and before I realised I spent hours watching the dancers, the musicians and the visitors. The small kids that were present in the public were absolutely amazing to watch. I saw kids rolling on the ground, running circles, spurting through the whole performance, taking pictures of the dancers… It clearly resonated with them.

Work/Travail/Arbeid, 2015 from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (still)

Dancers re-draw a chalk circle of the pattern guiding the dancers

The exhibition will travel to Centre Pompidou, Paris (26.02 – 06.03.2016) and Tate Modern, London (July 2016), where it will be presented in a 9-day version.

Watch more works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker: – Violin Phase on music by Steve Reich – Rosas Danst Rosas on music by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch – Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker talking about Fase performed in Tate Modern. Pictures in this post are taken by me.

In/Out

Die Grenzen meiner Sprache by Koen Fillet. Oil on canvas, 125 x 200 cm, 2014.

Summer by Koen Fillet. Acrylic on found wood, 34 x 31cm, 2014.

The power of finding your passion is currently lived by Belgian painter Koen Fillet. At age 52 and after many years of hosting radio talk shows on Belgian national radio he turned to art. Or should i say re-turned to art. At age 19 he studied art but didn’t fit in and couldn’t find the self confidence to make it happen. For 25 years he didn’t touch a brush and carried his artistic gift inside like a kindling fire. A few years ago he started taking lessons at the local art academy until the fire got too hot inside. Koen Fillet’s first solo exhibition is currently on show in gallery C41, Antwerp (Belgium).

Thirteen by Koen Fillet. Acrylic on canvas, 135×97 cm, 2014.

De terugkijkster (Looking back) by Koen Fillet. Oil on canvas, 180 x 210 cm, 2014.

What striked me most while looking at his work and having read a few interviews with him, is his uneasiness in sharing his new identity as an artist. Despite his ongoing search for self confidence, something inner and urgent was revealed and thanks to his courage he didn’t ignore it. His work is definitely interesting and discretely expresses his personal life view. There is an authenticity in the way he expresses himself in his art that is truly disarming and powerful. I’m looking forward to discover his painterly evolution.

Vanishing lady by Koen Fillet. Oil on canvas, 90 x 130 cm, 2014.

A hell of a job by Koen Fillet. Oil on paper,
29,7 x 42 cm (thirty sheets),
2015.

Pictures are from Koen Fillet’s artist website.

Sonia Delaunay – a life in colour

“Abstract art is only important if it is the endless rhythm
where the very ancient and the distant future meet.”
Sonia Delaunay, 1978

Yellow Nude (detail) by Sonia Delaunay (1908)

patchwork cover for her son’s cradle by Sonia Delaunay (1911)

If Sonia Delaunay would have lived now, she would have been an extremely successful entrepreneur, artist and polyglot. And that’s exactly what she was in the early 1900’s in Paris! Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was a pioneer of abstraction who spent a lifetime experimenting with colour in her search for pure painting. She brought painting and the art of colour into the everyday life – through fashion, theatre, textiles, tapestry, fabric design, mosaics, furniture, interior design, books, typography, drawing and painting. No wonder that her retrospective exhibition, which i saw in Paris (Musée d’art Moderne – moving to Tate Modern by 15 April 2015), is a whirlwind of artistic expression. The curators did a great job in showcasing not only an overview of her tremendous output but as a visitor you also get a really good sense of who she was and were she came from.

Simultaneous Solar Prism by Sonia Delaunay (1914)

Sonia Delaunay was born as Sonia Terk in Odessa (Ukrain) but spends most of her childhood with a wealthy uncle in St Petersburg. At the age of 18 she left to study painting in Germany before settling in Paris where she spent most of her life, apart from significant periods in Spain and Portugal to escape the war.

Sonia Delaunay (standing) with her students in her studio, rue Saint-Simon, Paris (1936)

‘As they wake up, the Delaunays speak painting,’ commented Guillaume Apollinaire, who had stayed at their apartment-studio in the Rue des Grads-Augustins in 1912. With her husband, the artist Robert Delaunay, she opened their home on Sunday afternoons to artists, poets, writers and musicians. Sonia Delaunay engaged with the ideas from both the French and Russian avant-gardes and in doing so managed a creative fusion that marked her work as unique.

While the Delaunay’s invented a new pictorial language together (Simultanism), Sonia developed it in an original way and applied it to everyday life without distinguishing between fine and applied arts. A remarkable artist to be discovered in a remarkable exhibition.

Rhythm, mural painting for the 15th Salon des Tuileries by Sonia Delaunay (1938)

textile designs by Sonia Delaunay (1934-35)

Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taeuber-Arp in Simultaneous bathing suits, on the beach at Carnac (FR-1929) and beach set designed by Sonia Delaunay (1928)

All pictures and everything you ever wanted to know about Sonia Delaunay can be found in the well researched catalogue ‘Sonia Delaunay’, 2014 accompanying the exhibition.

Untitled (prints by Peter Doig)

Grande rivière II by Peter Doig, 2002. Aquatint with drypoint, plate 36,8 x 24,1cm.

Peter Doig (°1959) is probably best known for his timeless, exotic landscape paintings, inspired by his own itinerant lifestyle. Born in Edinburgh, Doig lived in Trinidad, London, and Canada in his youth and studied painting in London. The artist now has a studio in Trinidad and New York, and also teaches painting at the School of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany.
His work is currently on show in Fondation Beyeler (Switserland) and will move later to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. For the first time he is showing some of his largely experimental prints. From the excellent catalogue I learn that making prints is not just a by-product of Doig’s art but can also be integral to his work process. The finished paintings we see are often the result of the development of an image that was first made as a print.

Grande Rivière by Peter Doig, 2001-02. Oil on canvas, 228 x 358 cm.

The first print shown above informed the painting ‘Grande Rivière’. It’s based on a photograph the artist took himself. In the catalogue he explains: “I was just attracted to this odd palm… I mean apart from the atmosphere… this bizarre sort of tree that seemed to be hanging in space, almost horizontally. That’s what’s great about print-making, a state can change the whole atmosphere.”

Untitled (Daytime astronomy) by Peter Doig, 1997. Etching with aquatint, working proof, plate 20 x 30 cm.

About ‘Daytime astronomy’ he recalls that the farm is somewhere close to the Quebec border with Ontario. “I used to take pictures whilst driving. I liked the plain and the emptiness and the somewhat generic buildings. The figure is based on a photograph of Jackson Pollock – a great photograph of a man lying on his back staring at the sky… He is rooted to the ground but seems to be elsewhere in his head.”

Untitled (Blotter) by Peter Doig, 1996. Etching, plate 29 x 19,6 cm.

Blotter by Peter Doig, 1993. Oil on canvas, 249 x 199 cm.

On the relation between the absurd and the serious in his works he refers to ‘Blotter’. “This guy standing and looking at his feet, I mean is this a valid subject for a painting?When i was working on this image I looked at Courbet’s ‘Hunters in the Snow’ (below). The thing I love about the hunters is their ordinariness, the way they’re wearing modern clothing. It relies quite directly on things like the silhouettes of the figures against the white of the snow.”

Hunters in the snow by Gustave Courbet, 1867. Oil on canvas, 102 x 122 cm.

“‘Blotter’ is actually one of the few paintings I have staged. When I was in Canada for Christmas 1993, I staged this composition with the idea of making a painting with a realistic image of reflection.It’s a portrait of my brother, at the time he must have been around 28 years old.”

Untitled (Dark Owl) by Peter Doig, 2013. Etching with aquatint, plate 35,2 x 25 cm.

Jetty by Peter Doig, 1996. Etching with aquatint, edition of 10, plate 20,4 x 15 cm.

Corbeaux by Peter Doig, 2013. Etching with aquatint, plate 24,8 x 34,9 cm.

If you want to read more, I recommend the article ‘Every Picture tells a Story’ about Peter Doig and a recent interview with the artist in DAMn Magazine.

All pictures are from the catalogue ‘Peter Doig’, 2014, Fondation Beyeler.

The Image as Burden

“No, they’re not all self-portraits.
No, it’s not always my daughter.
No, I had a happy childhood.
No, I’ve never been in therapy.”
Marlene Dumas

The Painter by Marlene Dumas, 1994  (MoMA, NYC)

Marlene Dumas (°1953) is a South African born painter. In the 1970s she came to the Netherlands on a scholarship to study art at Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem. Upon completing her studies she settled in Amsterdam, where she still lives and works.
She is one of Holland’s most internationally admired artists so the retrospective exhibition “The Image as Burden” opened in her home town.

I was introduced and swept away by her work in 1999 when she was shown in MUKHA, Belgium. About 15 years later, this exhibition did not manage to sweep me away. I realised, while strolling amidst her iconic works, that I was searching for a glimpse of evolution, for some sort of startling surprise, maybe a broadening of content, anything new to discover about Marlene Dumas.

Charity by Marlene Dumas, 2010. Oil on canvas (private collection Paris)

The pictures in this post show some works that pulled my attention. ‘Charity’ for example, who would think Dumas would ever paint a vase of flowers? I liked it at first sight, the dark colours, the contrast, the layering, …

Nuclear Family by Marlene Dumas, 2013. Oil on canvas (Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, CH)

The naked body is a major theme in Dumas’ oeuvre, however ‘Nuclear Family’ jumps out. A whole family is shown, the woman pregnant. What strikes me in this image is the togetherness and this emotion didn’t come to mind in any other of her works on display.

The Blindfolded Man by Marlene Dumas, 2007. Oil on canvas (The Rachovsky Collection)

The portrait is another major theme but ‘The Blindfolded Man’ jumped out. Where most of her portraits are intriguing because of the eyes, this painting is haunting because the eyes of the man are hidden. Her painting technique is marvellous in this work. I also liked ‘Liberation’ for its darkness and at the same time a refined lightness.

Liberation (1945) by Marlene Dumas, 1990. Oil on canvas (private collection of the artist)

And finally ‘The Painter’ (top picture), it is one of my favourites from her more iconic works. Dumas based this painting on a picture of her daughter as a child. The child takes the role of the painter.

The exhibition “The Image of Burden” offers a representative survey of the oeuvre that Marlene Dumas has developed over the last 40 years and thus provides an excellent chance to discover or revisit her work.
Still a chance to see it in Tate Modern, London (Feb 5-May 10) and Fondation Beyeler, Basel (May 30-Sep13).
Young museum co-workers exploring the exhibition ‘The Image as Burden’ in Amsterdam in this video.
All pictures shown are taken by me in the exhibition in Amsterdam.

Venice Biennale Revisited – Camille Henrot

The Venice Biennale provides an amazing art overload for the visitor and so I thought it would be nice to take the time to revisit the 2013 version. Which works left a lasting impression? Which artists were googled after coming home?

Camille Henrot  

Still from video ‘Grosse Fatigue’ by Camille Henrot 2013.

 

 
I clearly remember watching the video ‘Grosse Fatigue’ by Camille Henrot (born in 1975, Paris) at the 55th Venice Biennale. The exciting soundscape, the crazy uptempo editing of the images but most of all her dazzling attempt to capture the story of the creation of the universe in 13 minutes while infusing both the spiritual and secular means we use to create this knowledge.
‘Grosse Fatigue’ was awarded the prestigious Silver Lion award for the most promising young newcomer at the 55th Biennale.

Installation view of ‘Cities of Ys’ by Camille Henrot in NOMA, 2013.

Meanwhile she had her first solo exhibition in the UK and the first comprehensive exhibition of her work in the US (‘The Restless Earth’, NY) and last year she showed ‘Cities of Ys’ in the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

Installation view of ‘Cities of Ys’ by Camille Henrot in NOMA, 2013.

For ‘Cities of Ys‘ Camille Henrot created a combination of video and sculptural works that explore the fluidity of legends and cultures. Henrot was attracted to the Houma Indians in Louisiana both for their connection to her native language and for the tribe’s resistance to the homogenization and institutionalization of their culture. Today, the Houma tribe is seeking to become a federally recognized tribe by the United States government.

Installation view of ‘Cities of Ys’ by Camille Henrot in NOMA, 2013.

Seeking to tie together two cultures, the Houma, and her own, Henrot recalls a legend told by her grandmother from Brittany, France. According to this legend, titled “City of Ys,” Ys was a luxurious coastal city protected by a seawall. Princess Dahut of Ys, convinced by a foreign knight, stole the key to the floodgate from her father, King Gradlon. As a result of her transgression, the floodwalls collapsed and Ys was submerged underwater. However, the legend adds that the city continues to exist under the waves.

Through ‘Cities of Ys’, Henrot critically examines how our digital and globalized era challenges traditional notions of identity. It is her hope that by approaching cultures through their partial connections rather than their differences, we may increase our sense of global empathy.

Installation view of ‘Cities of Ys’ by Camille Henrot in NOMA, 2013.

The way she mixes scientific knowledge from anthropology and biology, myths, story telling, music, artefacts, sculpture and digital media in one captivating mix of links and insights is dazzling.

Camille Henrot is nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize 2014 which comes with $100,000 and a solo show at the Guggenheim in New York, to be announced later this month. Thumbs up!

Photographs of ‘Cities of Ys’ installation copyright Rachel Heidenry.

 

Rothko’s soup

No. 16 by Mark Rothko, 1957. Oil paint on canvas, 252 x 207 cm.

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is considered as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His large abstract paintings with colour blocks, so typical for Rothko’s classical style, are auctioned for tens of millions of dollars.

Mark Rothko, New York, 1960. Photo by Rudy Burckhardt.

More than 20 years (until his suicide in 1970), Rothko painted rectangular blocks in the most vivid of colours but even so in black. How did this extreme reduction of imagery came to be? How did he become an abstract painter?

Antigone by Mark Rothko, circa 1941. Oil paint and charcoal on canvas, 86 x 116 cm.

What i enjoyed tremendously in the current exhibition ‘Mark Rothko’ in Den Haag (The Netherlands) is the attempt to answer these questions. A lot of attention is dedicated to the early figurative work and the evolution to his later work.

Personage 2 by Mark Rothko, 1946. Oil paint on canvas, 142 x 82 cm.

His move from a naturalistic to a surrealistic style in the early 40’s is influenced by his interest in myths, psychoanalysis and the writings of Nietzsche. This stylistic move coincided also with major changes in his private life: after living as a Russian in the States for 25 years he was naturalised and he changed his name from Rothkowitz to Rothko. He divorced his first wife Edith Sachar, struggled with a depression and stopped painting for some time to work on his essay ‘The Artist’s Reality’.

No. 18 by Mark Rothko, 1946. Oil paint on canvas, 155 x 110 cm.

His adaptation of surrealism to his first abstract style, the so-called multiforms, occurred around the mid 40’s. His friendship with Clyfford Still seems to have played an important role in this evolution.

Untitled by Mark Rothko, 1948. Oil paint on canvas, 126 x 112 cm.

The multiforms shown in the exhibition in Den Haag are absolutely gorgeous and completely mesmerising. A soup of slowly moving forms with blurred lines between figure and background. Abstraction is boiling.

No. 9 by Mark Rothko, 1948. Oil paint and mixed media on canvas, 134 x 118 cm.

No. 10 by Mark Rothko, 1948. Oil paint on canvas, 164 x 108 cm.

In 1950 Rothko starts to develop his signature style with rectangular, hazy colour fields on monochrome portrait formats. Rothko is no longer stirring the soup.

No. 7 (or) No. 11 by Mark Rothko, 1949. Oil paint on canvas, 173 x 111 cm.

All pictures are scans from the catalogue ‘Mark Rothko’ accompanying the exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag from 20 Sep 2014 till 1 Mar 2015.

Paul Klee’s oil-transfer drawings

“Colour possesses me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: colour and I are one. I am a painter.”
Paul Klee, 1914

Christian Sectarian – Paul Klee, 1920, 4. Oil-transfer drawing and watercolour on paper on board. The Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Paul Klee (1879-1940) is one of my all time favourite artists. His delicate use of colour always gets me. I couldn’t make it to the exhibition “Paul Klee: making visible” at Tate Modern in spring but I enjoyed the excellent researched catalogue from a to z!

In the Wilderness – Paul Klee, 1921, 22. Oil-transfer drawing and watercolour on paper on cardboard. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.

Klee began to exhibit a little over a hundred years ago in his hometown Bern (Switserland). For a long time he was not very successful, he performed as a violinist and he taught art students for over a decade. At the heart of his career lays a sustained involvement with the Bauhaus, the hothouse for the creative revolution of the twentieth century in Europe.

Room Perspective with Inhabitants – Paul Klee, 1921, 24. Oil-transfer drawing and watercolour on paper on cardboard. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.

Colleagues of Klee recalled his studio as ‘carefully ordered confusion’. Klee established an environment in which to work on several pieces simultaneously which allowed him to produce watercolours, drawings and oil paintings at the same time and in generous quantities. He kept track of his output in his ‘oeuvre catalogue’ of completed works which he maintained for over thirty years. Each work is given a code which he inscribes on virtually every work on paper. For example, 1921/24 on ‘Room Perspective with inhabitants’ above announces that it is the 24th completed work in 1921.

The Twittering Machine – Paul Klee, 1922, 151. Oil-transfer drawing and watercolour on paper on cardboard. The Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Klee was inventive in many ways. Just as he made his own tools and brushes, so he developed his own techniques. For example his ‘oil-transfer’ of which all drawings shown in this post are examples. His ‘oil-transfer’ was essentially a home-made tracing system. A sheet of paper coated with black oil paint was, when dry to the touch, laid face down on what would be the host sheet for the image. On top of both was placed a drawing, the lines of which were retraced with an etching needle so as to press the oil paint onto the bottom sheet. The atmosphere of these ‘oil-transfer’ drawings is enhanced by the smudges of black paint pressed through by the drawing hand and which provides a resist to the superimposed coloured washes.

Ghost of a Genius – Paul Klee, 1922, 10. Oil-transfer drawing and watercolour on paper on card. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.

Paul Klee stated: ‘Art does not reproduce the visible, rather, it makes visible’. And that might well be the reason why i simply can’t stop looking at his fascinating work.

All pictures shown are scans from the catalogue ‘Paul Klee: making visible’, 2013, Tate Publishing.

Things fall apart

Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2006 – Sander Buyck

Although he travels the world to take pictures, in his images there is no sign of stereotypical portrayal. There is poetry, personality, and just the hint of a story. He’s an excellent observer.

Jenin, OPT, 2011 – Sander Buyck

Sander Buyck was born in Ghent (b 1984), Belgium were he studied photography. I was recently introduced to his work because he won the 2-yearly provincial price for visual arts (Oost-Vlaanderen-Belgium). The resulting exhibition showcasing his work was such a nice discovery. All pictures shown here are from the accompanying catalogue.

Havana, Cuba, 2009 – Sander Buyck

Tel-Aviv, Israel, 2010 – Sander Buyck

Paris, France, 2008 – Sander Buyck

“Rendez-vous au paradis” is a series on Palestinian martyrs photographed the way he encountered them on posters in the streets of Palestina. The project tells their individual stories as recounted by family members in a video that can be watched on iPads in the exhibition and now also on the project website.

Martyr #2 / Rendez-vous au paradis, West Bank, OPT, 2011 – Sander Buyck

“Things fall apart” is the title of an artist book he produced in 2009. For me it sums up beautifully the atmosphere in his images.

 

Between Dreams and Reality

Blood Brothers, 2013, Kustaa Saksi

I learned a new word. Hypnopompic is the dreamlike state between sleeping and waking that can evoke hallucinations. It is also the name of a series of wall hangings developed by Finnish graphic designer and artist Kustaa Saksi (b1975).

Arbor Vitae, 2013, Kustaa Saksi

Without a background in textiles, Kustaa Saksi was able to produce these wonderful tapestries in the TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The TextielLab is a unique knowledge and production centre for producing experimental knits and woven fabrics.

Hiding in Plain Sight, 2013, Kustaa Saksi

The resulting 8 wall hangings reveal a wonderful world of surreal landscapes with animals, plants and patterns. They are absolutely stunning, incredibly detailed and can be admired in the Textiel Museum, Tilburg, NL till Nov 2nd 2014.

Arachne’s Web, 2013, Kustaa Saksi

The development process of these works is illustrated in the exhibition by a fascinating film which offers a glimpse into the workplace showing Kustaa working closely together with a product developer of the TextielLab.

To actually see the tapestries in the exhibition space (and feel the samples) was a breathtaking experience, only then they reveal their three-dimensional qualities and amazing details and textures.
An artist to be watched!

detail wall hanging ‘Bood Brothers’ by Kustaa Saksi (2013)