visual artist
April – September
Wijchens Lake, Wijchen
75 years of liberation is celebrated in Wijchen (Gelderland Province), among other things by organising the MEERkunst art project in 2020, which has been given the theme freedom. The central location is the elongated Wijchens Lake, which connects different neighbourhoods as a recreational and nature area. KunstKring Wijchen has invited me to participate in this exhibition with one work of art.
June – October 2019
Sculpture Garden Funnix, Wittmund, Germany
This year the 200th birthday of the German author Theodore Fontane is being celebrated (1819, Neuruppin – 1898, Berlin). For that occasion I have created a sculpture: Fontane, Liberal and Nationalist.
Introduction
The German writer Theodor Fontane wrote realistic and naturalistic novels. He did not only want to portray people’s everyday life, as in realism, but also and specially to show which underlying forces had influenced his characters. His stories are mostly situated in his birthplace Prussia, the present federal state of Brandenburg. He is known for constantly having been troubled with his conscience by the contrast between on the one hand his interest in democratic reforms as he had seen in England and his sympathy for liberalism, and on the other hand his longing for stability and bourgeois morality. His fluctuating sympathies for liberalism and conservatism testify to this, and are reflected in his novels set in petty bourgeois society. In his most famous work, Effi Briest, he exposed the parochial pettiness of such environments. The book’s main character, Effi, the free-thinking protagonist, perishes due to the rigid narrow-mindedness of the society she lived in, and is said to be a strong autobiographical representation of Fontane himself.
Explaining the work of art
My work of art in honour of the 200-year anniversary of Fontane is an abstract image of the dichotomy between, on the one hand, Fontane’s sympathy for liberalism and freedom of expression and on the other hand, his tendency to conservatism and moral leadership.The form of the sculpture is vaguely reminiscent of a person who is holding a glass in one hand, bringing a toast on freedom and democracy, while the other hand is holding a sword-shaped object that symbolizes oppression and coercion. The colours reflect these symbols: red for a warm, possibly revolutionary gesture, light blue as a neutral, sober consideration, and dark blue for cool and sobering repression.
February 21 – 24
Garden Ideas
Garden Fair | Brabant Hallen | ‘s-Hertogenbosch | Brabant Province
October 27 – December 2
De Boterhal | Hoorn | North-Holland Province
As member of De Ploegh I participate in the exposition in De Boterhal | Hoorn
with two sculptures
May 15 – September 15
Sloten, Friesland Province
The Frisian capital of Leeuwarden has been selected as European Cultural Capital 2018. The idea for this year’s new version of The Colourfield Performance is to create a collaborative work of art in the form of ultimately 499 paintings. This fits well with the year’s theme Community. The work of art has the dimensions of a land-art style project: in an open landscape easels are erected on wooden stakes. The easels with white panels are arranged to create an equilateral triangle of 233 meters each side. The number 233 comes from the Fibonacci Series, which is intimately connected to the Golden Section. The shape of a triangle was chosen because this mathematical form behaves autonomously towards the structure of the Frisian landscape.
During the four months of the exhibition 34.000 persons visited the Colorfield Performance in Sloten.
The Colourfield Performance website
Final version (YouTube 1)
Final Version (YouTube 2)
THE RED JACKET
A diptych as self-portrait
As an artist I portray myself with my work: sculptures, paintings and graphics. This self-portrait consists of a diptych of new work: a spatial and a one-dimensional piece of art. Totally different technics, though both carrying the same title: The Red Jacket.
Red is the colour of vitality and energy, of fire and love, and of struggle to the death. Red is a warm colour asking for attention and it is associated with the body. The wearing of red clothes expresses one’s inclination to follow a personal track: look, this is my style, this is me!
