Berend Bodenkamp, Samenhang (Coherence/Cohesion); Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague

At Museum Beelden aan Zee It is the last week for Samenhang (Coherence or Cohesion), the exceptionally fine small retrospective of works by Berend Bodenkamp (1942).

They are somewhere in between graphic art and sculpture.

His subtle works look sculptural as he often makes use of materials like quartzite, but also canvass or graphite.

Especially quartzite has a history of its own, which becomes part of Bodenkamp’s compositions.

Bodenkamp combines geometry and natural processes, usually resulting in works hanging on the wall.

They reflect the workings of nature and the expressive element of art is given back to nature, as it were.

It is a show of tranquillity and respect.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

All content of pictures courtesy to Berend Bodenkamp and Museum Beelden aan Zee.

 

Bertus Pieters

Anne Forest: Lineage; Heden, The Hague

When Anne Forest graduated from the Royal Academy in The Hague i can’t say I was exceptionally impressed by her work. It looked too much like a mannerism to me, but during the last few years she has matured considerably.

Now she is an artist who is immediately recognizable indeed, but her style is also manoeuvrable. It tries to match any material.

Inspired by the Russian Orthodox icons she grew up with, her main subject is the portrait. Every one of these portraits is a stylish clash between icon-like formalism and expression of character.

With every new portrait she strikes a new balance between material, form, line, colour and expression. Every portrait creates its own formalism. At present her work is on show at Heden. Make sure to go and see it!

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Content of pictures courtesy to Anne Forest and Heden.

 

Bertus Pieters

Pedro Reyes: Disarm; Pulchri (TodaysArt), The Hague

The coming weekend The Hague hosts the quite pricey TodaysArt festival, but Disarm by Pedro Reyes in Pulchri Studio is free and it is well worth seeing and hearing.

Mexican artist Reyes transforms used weapons into musical instruments which are activated electronically.

 

You can’t hear the fantastic sounds they make every now and then on this blog, but at least here are some visual details.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Content of all pictures courtesy to Pedro Reyes, Pulchri Studio and TodaysArt

 

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague #19

Façade of the Embassy of the Republic of Ghana, Laan Copes van Cattenburch. The mutual history of Ghana and the Netherlands is a long one.

From 1598 onwards the then young republic of the United Netherlands had trade posts along the Ghanaian coast, then known to Europeans as the Gold Coast.

In the 17^th century these coastal colonies became important slave trading posts for the Dutch West Indian Company.

In the 19^th century the Dutch recruited soldiers from the Gold Coast to fight in the Royal Dutch Indian Army (KNIL) in present day Indonesia.

The Dutch Gold Coast colonies were sold in 1871 to the British.

In 1957 Ghana was the first sub-saharan African country to declare itself independent under its charismatic leader Kwame Nkrumah.

The façade is built in late 19^th century eclectic style, but it might well have been built in the 1920s as that style was used until the 1930s.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

All pictures were taken in March 2016

 

Bertus Pieters

Sander Reijgers (and Niels Post), GeSchwitter; Galerie Helder, The Hague

Presently, Sander Reijgers shows paintings at Helder gallery.

He makes paintings that may also be described as colour reliefs or, in another way, as icons.

Layers of paint are applied on top of each other.

Originally Reijgers made his paintings evolve into a kind of objects, but his latest works start looking like maps or miniature renderings of strange, flat and barren landscapes.

Icons were once (or are still) revered, as the hand of the artist was supposed to be the medium of God.

You may exchange God’s hand for intuition and there you have Reijgers’ way of painting.

His works are both radical and diligent and every painting bares its own history of abstraction and re-abstraction.

Last weekend Niels Post added a text, probably taken from some digital spam, but transfiguring into a kind of holy quotation accompanying Reijgers’ icons.

Go and see Post’s complete text and Reijgers’ wonderful paintings, as the exhibition is in its last week.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Contents of the pictures courtesy to the artists and to Galerie Helder.

 

Bertus Pieters