In the blog about New York of last summer I mentioned that this city has the best of both old and new. It really has… It is a center of the arts…

There it happened twice that people mentioned that my art would not fit in certain circles, because it is not ‘modern’. What did that mean?

Here is an attempt to understand what it is about; it ended somewhere else...

First of all it means that the art world is cut up in different territories that have little in common. All have their own way of defining what cutting edge is.

And more specifically concerning my work, if I understand well, it meant that my work refers much to the classical idiom. In my work there are many references to art from before let’s say 1917.

I say 1917: it was the moment when Duchamp exposed the urinal. It caused a shock and ever since in the art world it has been the ultimate one created, a point of no return for some.

Fountain - Duchamp.

1917 was the penultimate year of the First World War. This war shocked the Western world too. One must have had to do with the other.

Before the war there had been a feeling of great optimism. Life would get better thanks to the new inventions and the industrialization. Everything was turned upside down in a happy way.

It was also the period where the bourgeoisie took the lead. New money took over from old money. These nouveau riche were often considered without any cultural schooling.

It may have been a combination of the two: artists looked down upon these new clients and at the same time they rebelled against the old culture that had brought the horror of a war on a scale that was never experienced before.

Much of this art had a positive vibe. New sheets on the bed; open the windows! When I saw this ‘Open window’, painted by Matisse, I had the feeling that his view was not very positive… It was painted in 1914.

The open window - Matisse.

In the end it culminated in exhibiting a urinal.

'Away with the old, we have to revaluate all.' In that moment it may have made sense, but now we are 100 years further…

I was educated in the sixties and seventies of the last century. In this period the United States were considered the future. It was the place where all ‘happened’. Of course this new wave had a lot of success there; it was a young nation. It could see this movement as the origin of an authentic American art (if we neglect the original American culture).

I believed then, that what art should be like was this kind of art. This was the true art, the art that mattered. People should be shaken up, put out of their comfort zone and shown that the world was more than just shaped after their ‘petit bourgeois beauty’ values. Values that artists played with.

WHAAM - Lichtenstein.

It fitted well with the age I had; I was an adolescent.

But I was moved by the classical art too, paintings by Rembrandt, Goya, Velazquez, Caravaggio, and Giotto: you name them; they gave me great pleasure. Could it be, that I recognized in their works the same ‘shock’ value as I found in the ‘modern’ art?

Were these artists in their time the ones who made works of a ‘point of no return’? What was their concern while making these works? How much of it had to do with the moral message and how much with how it was transmitted?

Let’s take the case of Caravaggio. His works shocked many, but it suited the establishment. It showed the spectator what the establishment wanted them to see and belief. Caravaggio was the executor of the message spread by the establishment.

The calling of St. Matthew - Caravaggio.

The church had the message; Caravaggio showed it. That message may have lost its meaning, what is left is the interesting way of how it was transmitted.

What I often see is that the modern artist has become the moralist, the establishment and not just the executor of somebody else’s message. Many times he doesn’t give an interesting twist to what he says.

Take Banksy. Who tells him to paint the subject and the way he does it? The tradition of a certain craftsmanship has been abandoned (or not seen anymore as valuable).

Bansky: nº1.

Maybe it is better to say that the ‘modern’ approach towards the subject of art is often more about a moralistic message than that the work of art is ‘modern’ by the way it is made.

If so, why is that?

Picasso was maybe one of the last to really experiment with how to tell a story. He shocked the world not by what he told but by how. In his work you will find few moral messages that are uncommon. Often he just shows, not lectures.

Les demoiselles d’Avignon - Picasso.

This approach towards the material painters work with maybe ended in the Rothko Chapel. Where to go from there… That Rothko committed suicide seems obvious to me…

What to read in those black paintings, but one’s own thoughts?

Rothko Chapel - Rothko.

The fascination of painting a work that shows an extreme or surprising view on the painted subject, the comparison of the painting and the subject that was the inspiration, has been lost for many.

Is what we mean to say when we say something is ‘modern’, neglecting how to tell a story? Is what we call ‘modern’ art, an object that teaches us how we should live no matter how it is communicated?

A very clear example of this can be found in the work of Jenny Holzer. Her works indicate us how we should approach life; this message is transmitted in a very down to earth uninteresting way.

Jenny Holzer.

I saw an interview with her on BBC television. It was funny to see her questioning the establishment.

Yet she is part of another establishment. Her show was in a famous modern art museum, a safe place to doubt the ruling class. Much art plays the role of a completely harmless clown, amusing the king. She represents for me the perfect example of the ‘petit bourgeois moral’ of the so-called intellectual art elite.

And here a curious thought pops up.

Caravaggio was a great painter, but also a murderer… There are many more examples. Now I am curious about Jenny Holzers life…

Then again, it took me years to understand (for me), that for making great art it is not necessary to be somebody with the best moral. From that moment on I showed little interest in the private life of the artists. It’s the way they shaped the idea that interests me. Holzers work is done in such a mediocre matter of fact way, that only the moralistic lesson could possibly interest me.

god?

Maybe the definition of ‘modern’ has become empty because mostly hanging on morals of this isolated 'art intellectual elite establishment'.

Today the thought that ‘anything goes’ eliminates the shock value. It has all become a joke. The mirror that we have being placed in front of us is embraced immediately. We look at the controversial message as come from the new god and thus it is immediately the rule of the art establishment.

We live in hectic times. God has been declared dead. Long live the new god… We dance and jump around amused...

Maybe I am alone in this, but much of what I saw that is considered ‘modern’, is just a lazy way of dealing with giving shape to a so-called shocking idea. Having ideas is the easiest thing to do. And nowadays it is without any risk.

‘The times are changing…’ The elite has fallen in love with itself.

It has become the speculation object for the ‘happy few’. It has been given value by the art establishment and by doing so; it has lost its shock value.

Too many times I see modern art lovers visiting the museums with the air of ‘I am one of the avant-garde’… an avant-garde of the past, a dead avant-garde… the art shown does not shock, it reaffirms the ‘elite’ of being the ‘elite’.

The last example of this empty moral lesson is the Banksy half destructed work right after it was sold. The establishment was ‘shocked’ for a moment, but almost immediately embraced the moralistic message. Now that work has only gone up in economical value.

Banksy, nº2 and shocked spectator.

And then I remembered that 'modernism' was followed by 'post modernism'…

Works in that style have always looked like Mickey Mouse on holidays at the Acropolis to me. Not the continence but the visualization was altered in an Ikea kind of a way. So 'modern' is not even the last stand for the hipsters… little help!...

Then what is the challenge today?

There is practically no terra incognita left to discover (both the poles were discovered in the early 1900’s, again that period). ‘Go west’ has become an empty phrase. We have painted with butter, chocolate and excrements. When there was nobody to insult or shock anymore, we have insulted ourselves. All has been done. But still what it means to make something beautiful has not been figured out. I have come to the conclusion that if you cannot give the message you want to communicate a painterly interesting twist, you should better shut up. It is time to make ‘poetry’ again, even if this may seem old-fashioned.

All my 40 painting years I have tried to find the key for making a beautiful painting. It may be clear that I haven’t found it yet. I have come to some sweet attempts. What helps is to try to surprise oneself instead of lecturing others, to create beauty made in an existing language, not creating new languages nobody will understand.

I may feel 'a god in the deepest of my thoughts', but I should not forget to entertain and communicate.

This for me is the 'NEW MODERN ART' or better: ‘TIMELESS ART’.

The latest work I feel good about is this self portrait, I look in the mirror and what do I do with that…

a 'questioning me' in the mirror, listening to one of the most beautiful 'non modern' pieces of music ever made...

Lately I have been putting many sketches on my chapter sketchbooks (Click on the word to go to this chapter. Three pages will appear with 24 sketches. Click on one of the three blocks on the bottom right, showing a random selection of 8 each).

The total number is over 390… More will follow.

I have been making drawings in sketch blocks from 1980 on. The first three years I lived in Firenze, Italy.

1980 – 1984: THE BLACK AND WHITE YEARS. 

I had to get used to making sketches in this way. The difference between a loose sketch and one in a book is that the sketch becomes part of a 'dairy'. You cannot tear one out, if it is not good, you keep on seeing it year after year.

I started making them only in black and white with pen and ink, ballpoint or marker.

Many of these sketches are made in a linear style till I found a Japanese ink brush. This brush works like a fountain pen. With it I could also work more with surfaces. I feel more at ease with the brush than with the pencil. My talent lays more in expressing myself through planes than defining through lines.

The challenge is to work direct, not being able to correct much. It is not easy, but every once in a while a good one would come out.

In Firenze I made many sketches of friends during the evenings, maybe because my Italian was not sufficient enough to participate in the discussions about politics and other.

I also used the blocks to figure compositions and ideas out. I found only a few pages where I copied paintings or details of works of great painters.

The oldest sketch on the site is one made while waiting on a friend. It is of the gallery Vittorio Emanuele of Milano. Sometimes it is good that a friend is late… I made it in 1984. I lived in Amsterdam again.

1985 - TODAY: COLOUR AND NEW MATERIALS.

 
I started to work with more materials (pencil, pen and ink, magic marker) and in colour. In 1989 there was breakthrough. I discovered the Uni Posca markers. I used them mixed with other kind of markers. It took me about 7 years to learn how to use these Uni Posca markers to the maximum of their possibilities. Not many people know what they are, so here you can see them on two photos. And there are two of the first sketches made with these markers. 

Now I use them almost always just mixed with pen and ink. They give me the possibility to make little ‘paintings’.

This helps me; on this scale I have to find painterly solutions in the way of how for example Velazquez, the late Rembrandt, the late Goya and Manet did. More names come to my mind; here is a mix of some details of great paintings and some of my interpretations (can you see who is who?). 
 

SUBJECTS AFTER 1985.

Apart from the copying of masters, composition sketches and the occasional pinning down of a memory, many sketches have their story to tell. This change came in 1985. I can now start a sketch without having any idea; just let it come by mindless scribbling.

WHEN I SKETCH.

I have had years that I did not sketch. Why, I don’t know. It is part of the spontaneous way I want things to happen. Sometimes I will pick up a block to stay ‘within the discipline’, but leave the 'serious' paintings alone. Like having a brake from eating oisters by eating candy.

Lately I have picked the blocks up again regularly. It has to be fun; I have no intention selling any. These blocks are my 'dairies', my world apart from the pretentious and money making industry.

The video? It was George Micheal’s protest against the music industry trying to turn him into a slave. But let's not take things too serious... let's dance!

The video brings back memories. It was made in the year I moved to New York. Looking in my blocks I feel nostalgic every now and then. The good old times…

Let’s make nice memories for the future!

This July I was on holidays in New York. This city shows the best of both worlds: modern and classic art. It was paradise.

I had little time. I was there with my daughter and I had no intention to make her hate the arts. So we went to more than just museums (and I loved it, seeing Gala happy is a feast).

Gala in New York.

I have to come back soon. I will lock me up in all these wonderful museums for days.

Now I could only spend one day at the Metropolitan Museum.

I started my visit in the modern art section. Amongst the ‘classics’ there were one Pollock and two De Koonings.

Seeing the one of Pollock was a good introduction, a couple of days later we went to see Pollock's house and studio.

Jackson Pollock, 'Autumn Rhythm (nº 30)'.

Of all the painters of the New York School, I have always been fascinated the most by Willem de Kooning. His works are varied, I sort of feel he covered more grounds than others like Pollock, Newman or Kline. There are more traces to be found of the thousands of years of paintings in his works.

The two De Koonings seem to be in bad shape. He glued newspapers on his canvasses and put on thick layers of paint mixed with probably sand. How to preserve these works for the future may be a hell of a job…

Willem de Kooning, 'Attic' and 'Easter Monday'.

see the details, all those cracks…

details of both works of Willem de Kooning.

I didn’t dare to cough standing nearby (Maybe that’s why there was only one late De Kooning on show in the MOMA?).

A very pleasant surprise was a beautiful painting of Joan Mitchell.

I remember going to an opening of a show in 1992 and finding all the works without spirit or power. Going down in the elevator standing next to her, she looked bored and disillusioned. I wrote her off…

Joan Mitchell, 'Sun Flower'.

This painting was made in 1969 and for me it put her back on the map. It may be that I like it, because I can see the sunflowers in the painting and her moving away from the realistic representation. I love the confrontation between a painting and the subject in the real. The challenge is bigger.

Did she loose interest after many years of painting? Was that what I saw in the elevator?

The 3 paintings of Jennifer Bartlett were a discovery. They are part of a series of 24 paintings called ‘Air: 24 hours’.

Jennifer Bartlett, 'FIVE P.M.'.

I let the Metropolitan explain:

…’This is a work from Bartlett’s ambitious series AIR: 24 Hours, a group of 24 paintings, one for each hour of the day. The cycle documents the passage of time, depicting a different area of the artist’s home and studio in Manhattan. Following a set of self-imposed rules, the paintings share an underlying grid-based structure, the constituent elements of which always add up to the number sixty. Bartlett’s systematic approach is belied by the paintings’ spatial instability, enigmatic character, and absurd, irreconcilable details. Things appear (and re-appear) in these works that defy explanation. Throughout her series, Bartlett makes public some of these most personal aspects of her daily life while retaining a sense of ironic distance and mysterious inaccessibility’...

Maybe because I only saw three, maybe I am not very sensitive, but to me the door to any intimate insight of her life stayed closed. Maybe also because I was more concentrated on what I saw painterly wise.

Quite often I can do better without these texts...

I loved the combination of very stiff painted geometric patterns and the more loosely painted other parts. I have my doubts about the two human figures in the painting 'FIVE A.M.'.

Too bad I could not see the whole series; it might have given me more clues. And too bad the 'ONE A.M.' was not exhibited!

Here are the three I saw:

left to right: 'SEVEN A.M.' - 'FIVE P.M.' - 'FIVE .A.M.'

I visited the museum moving back in time. It made me look at some works from a different point of view. What a beauty is this Turner! 

Note the splash of water on the right. It gives the painting more depth and movement.

Turner, 'Whalers'.

Since I saw the show ‘Late Turner’ in London in 2014, I have become a big fan of his work.

From Turner to Monet is a little step. Monet took a lot from Turner. I take a lot from both…

The painting of Monet (MOMA) and the ones of Pollock (Metropolitan and MOMA) were the ones that kicked in the hardest.

In the last blog I talked about the advantage of the quality of prints, that helps us today, but during this trip I noticed again and again that seeing a work for real is of vital importance. The 'Water lilies' of Monet in the MOMA shows it more than any other.

I seem to circle around the same themes over and over and not even only in this blog (water lilies, water)...

Of that triptych I didn’t make a photo. Taking a photo is an act of stepping out. You preserve it, so later on you can get back to it, instead of forcing yourself the confrontation with the object.

It is impossible to imagine the impact by looking at a photo. This work is maybe even more overwhelming than the canvasses of Pollock. Size plays a crucial role.

I took this image of the net to ‘show’ the work. It triggers my memories of sitting in front of it. It has the effect of the madaleine cake in 'À la recherche du temps perdu'. I hope I have managed to lock up that sensation in my mind for many years.

What struck me was that he made this work in the years 1914-1926 (at least, that is what was written next to the tryptich). And those were partly the years of the First World War, till then the most useless and cruel war ever experienced.

Did he try to create a world of his own in which he could hide?

In the MOMA I felt that the tendence of the latest years is to move away from the eye to the mind. There were many objects on show that as a visual experience were minimal. Much was about what one should think or how one should live, not more than just a comment on life. This art does not appeal to me. I have nothing with artists like Jenny Holzer. It is the new puritanism that I have no connection with. 

This is why I felt more at home at the Metropolitan Museum. Art should for a great deal talk about art. For me an artist has the duty to fill the world with beautiful objects, make this place a better place to live in, not put signs everywhere telling what others do wrong, question without questioning one's own gesture.

If it is all just a comment on the tendences in society in any random form, art becomes more something that should be shown in a church. In a way many museums of modern art seem like churches. And very often the message that is delivered is of such 'elite' shape, that it only is readable for its own 'parish'.

In a sense the 'Water Lilies' can be seen as a comment on the war apart from it being a great work of art. Knowing in which period the works were made, can make you question the idealogical purpose of them. And that for me in a more profound way than just a hang a sign with 'WAR IS BAD'.

The text in the MOMA next to it only refers to Monet's possible desire to move towards abstraction...  

I will come back to all the great art I saw in the next blogs. It was so much... 

It was fireworks! 

4th of July.

These are fortunate times for painters.

I live in Barcelona and that is as far as museums and exhibitions concerned not a very inspiring city.

Luckily I can travel! Flights to for example London cost nothing.

Or I can go the bookshop Central. It is the best art book shop in town (click on 'Central' in grey to go to their site).

The reproductions in books have become amazingly good.

I have a book my grandfather bought at the big Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam in 1969. The book is more a treasure because he bought it, than that I look in it for the reproductions. 

Some time ago I bought this book about Vermeer. See the difference... 

The big question is; do I really see Vermeer’s paintings? The reproductions get quite near to the originals, even though we cannot buy books where the paintings are reproduced in three dimensions. But in a book you do not see the works in the right size and what is missing too is the ritual of going to a museum. It may seem little, but if you have travelled for it, all becomes more of an adventure. When I go to the opera, I put my best clothes on. When I listen to an opera at home, I can be stark naked farting away...

The same counts for seeing works on the Internet. It is great that there is the site Arts and Cuture Google. Click on the grey word to go to this endless collection of wonders. 

We ‘travel’ the world sitting in our chair.

Also I can take photos that are of a reasonably good quality. This can fill the hiatus here and there, created by the lack of fame of a work or dead artist.

There can be a down side to the taking of photos in museums.

Visiting the Louvre I noticed that the alarm constantly went off. Visitors took photos (many selfies) of works and then of the title, bending over the protection line.

Being an ‘elitist’, I favor the thought once expressed by Gianni that there should be two Uffizi museums. One for the tourists, with well made reproductions and one you can only visit if you have passed an exam.

Great side effect is that it gives art students the posibility to study the great masters in a more profound way and even earning money doing so. In that museum there will be no fences nor alarms, the tourists can touch the paintings. There will only be a control at the exit, so they don't rob the place empty.

An exception has to be made for sculpture. In future I expect that you will be able to possess holograms of sculptures. But then you will not be able to touch them, which according to Nat Neujean (read about him in the blog of 06-03-2018) was an important thing to do…

I remember the story of Stravinsky touching the sculptures of Marino Marini at an exhibition (he was not arrested for that crime).

What is the influence of all this on the way we paint? I think for example about what the invention of the tube did to painting. Thanks to that invention painters could go and paint outdoors. 

Every once in a while I like to copy works from reproductions. It is a very good way to learn from the great masters without having to travel the world. My knowledge of art is a lot broader than the one of my grandfater.

Here are some sketches, do you recognize any of them?

It resulted in the series ‘Art Hysteria’. Click on the word to go the the chapter on the site.

It could be a nice extra to the collection of works that a fake museum 'owns'.

Picasso seems to have said that photography liberated painters from the obligation to paint realistic. Reproductions give them the possibility to steal from others.

In the old days things were different. There is the story about the young Mozart visiting the Sistine chapel. Only there one could hear the ‘Miserere’ of Allegri. The pope wanted the music piece exclusively for himself. Only the chapel master of the Vatican had the music score.

Mozart listened to the concert once and wrote the score afterwards. He thought to have made a mistake. He went back, finding out that he hadn’t. And this is how we can enjoy the 'Miserere' everywhere...

I have no photographic memory, so books help. Long live art books with good reproductions!!!

Click on the image below to hear the 'Miserere'.

Some days ago, walking to school with Gala, she came with a worrying remark. She told me that in the year 2100 the Netherlands don’t exist anymore. Because of the melting of Antarctica, the Netherlands will be flooded…

All that water… I am Dutch and I love water. The idea of the sea being around the corner (I live in Barcelona) comforts me.

But it has to behave!

I realized that I have had quite something to do with water lately.

There was the show on Malta.

A perfect wet blue blanket with a creamy yellow island in the middle. I took a lovely boat ride and visited the Saint John Co-Cathedral. For the art experts under you, Caravaggio died on a beach...

Going back a little further in time: there was the Jongkind exhibition in February 2018. I am a big fan of Jongkind. Ever since 1975 I have been searching for a good book about his work and then all of a sudden there was the exhibition in Dordrecht, complete with catalogue.

Dordrecht was a famous city at the end of Nineteenth century. Experts claimed that the light was of great beauty thanks to the presence of water. Turner (another of my favorite painters of water and boats) went there to paint.

Turner

Joseph Beuys mourned over the disappearence of the magic Dutch light, due to the making of polders.

No worries for 2100, dear Joseph…  

Click on Joseph to hear his comment.

Jonkind was a painter of boats and water.

Jonkind

I write this with a glass of wine within reach, liquid is a good inspiration… Jongkind loved wine a little too much…

Did this give his brush strokes that vibrant character? Could be, it is of no importance where the inspiration comes from, as long as the result is good…

In the catalogue I read that Monet said that Jongkind showed him the way. Now one should not always belief what critics write in catalogues. But what is a fact is that for the Impressionists water was a great subject to paint. No solid shape, just colors reflected…

Monet

Me too, I love the reflections on water. I made several paintings of water lilies, this is number two.

Flower 011, oil on canvas, 50 x 180 cm, 2012.

Consequently Venice is one of my favourite places to live. I told friends that on the top of my bucket list there is the wish by a beautiful woman in her gondola to be brought to her palace.

click on the image to read about it.

If you are left without wishes you might as well die. Even in my after life water plays a big role. I told Gala about my wishes concerning my funeral and after life. 

click on the image to go to the text.

Should we change the phrase: ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ into ‘Water to water, liquid to liquid’?

I choose for an ‘old’ seascape of mine, my first commission with this subject, to finish off this blog about water. I made it with ‘The Flying Dutchman’ in mind… Roaming the seas till eternity…

Seascape 002, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, 2015.

Barcelona, April 28, 2018.

Nat Neujean.

Some time ago I received a mail about the passing away of a great sculptor and great man.

I met Nat Neujean in Firenze in 1982. We met in the house of a mutual friend, Mikolash.

Nat was a older than we were.

Getting to know him was easy. He had an open spirit; he was a curious person. He heard I was a painter and immediately wanted to know about my work.

He was Belgian and spoke Dutch. This helped too.

The first meeting was overwhelming. He was commissioned to make the portrait of Mikolash’ son, Jacopo. The clay came out on the turning table from under the plastic and Nat immediately began to work with a frenetic pace. There was a tunnel between him and Jacopo. Nothing else existed.

One thing I still tell quite often. At a certain point Nat needed a piece of wire. Without hesitation he pulled the telephone wire out of the wall and phone and used it.

This characterized Nat. It showed his sense of practicality, drive and total lack of useless etiquette. As long as it worked, it was good. Reputations meant nothing to him either.

He wanted to help me; he saw something in my work and maybe also my attitude. I was very welcome at his house in Brussels. I think the first time I was guest there, was when Mikolash had a show in Brussels.

Everywhere in his house were his sculptures, always the human figure.

There is more than one sculpture that without any doubt, if ever I will have the money, I will want to possess.

Through him I found a gallery in Brussels and I had some good shows there.

I regard him as a teacher in more than one way. An important lesson I learned was that when you paint human beings bigger than life size, the proportions change. Always make the head, hands and feet smaller. This came in handy when I had the commission for the church in Modena.

Nat told me this when he was working on a big sculpture of two girls. He had first made the sketch, a sculpture of about 50 cm high. Then he made it life size, then the final one, about 4 meters high. I saw all versions in Brussels…

He had a special way of talking, always with a lot of wit, but he would never beat around the bush.

He was a sculpture himself. There was no way of pushing him around. If you shook hands, he decided how strong the handshake was. And it was clear he could crush your hand if he wanted to.

He was Jewish. He had survived the Second World War in an amazing way, but I don’t feel like telling about it here. After the war he made sketches of groups of people who are waiting to be deported. I regard them as one of the many high lights of his oeuvre. He was looking for a place to have them permanently exhibited.

Because my father worked with some influent Jewish people in Amsterdam, he tried to have them exposed there, but because of the veto on the realistic representation of human beings by Jewish laws, he could not help him.

click on the image to go to the site of the museum.

We lost contact. These things happen.

And I don’t know how, but the news came to me of the inauguration of a group of these sculptures in the museum of Mechelen. Finally a group of these deported Jews found a permanent place. I came to the opening and it was a great new encounter. I stayed for a couple of days and we said not to let so much time pass by anymore.

Alas, I have had so many times the desire to see him again, but could not find the moment or occasion. I am too late now.

Thank you for all you showed me, Nat.

Click on these words to go to his site.

I wanted to write this blog about the paintings 'Happy Family', ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Soul Kiss’. They will pass by, but my mind drifted further and further away from these specific paintings to what often happens while working: a radical change in my state of mind. This phenomenon has occurred during my whole painting life, but not always.

Recently I worked on a flower canvas and a large part of the time I can then next to painting, listen to documentaries about art and other.

When I work in this way, I stay quite far from giving space to my subconscious. I reason, I concentrate on the craftsmanship. These paintings are about the beauty of colorful and shiny objects in space. 

Flower 039

Quite often while working, I start to talk to myself about what is good or bad in the work (most of the time I find what I do is not up to my standards). And then unwillingly I start discussing with people that are not present, mostly fellow painters whose work I have no sympathy or respect for. As to juxtapose the good and bad ways of painting…

This is a stupid habit of mine, but I can do little about it. I care about painting. I am a bit a moralist, a characteristic I dislike.

These flower paintings alternate works like 'Happy Family', 'Take off your mask’ and ‘Black Dog’.

And while working on the latter I get into another state of mind. A state of mind that I find essential to experience.

Happy Family, Soul Kiss and Black Dog.

I get into a trance; get more lost in the work itself. I let the painting guide me. Listening to music helps. It has to be music that does not surprise me. It helps me to get into a rhythm, block influences from the outside world.

These paintings are about something more than just challenging my technical skills.

As I have said very often, the best moments in life for me are the moments when I am not there, when I dissolve in the world around me. I leave the moralistic discussions behind.

And then this weird phenomenon occurs. Fallen into this heavenly trance, out of the blue I am struck by a painful memory.

A memory about something stupid or bad that I did in the past.

I have always accepted these moments without asking why they attack me. But lately I wondered why these memories show up.

Not long ago I was put on track, maybe… Somebody mentioned a thought of Jung.

Jung seems to have said that one has to face one’s own demons, accept them. If we don’t realize we are also capable of horrible behavior, there is little hope for us to be good, serene and complete human beings.

When lost in this trance at the most unexpected moments I am being bombarded with the memories of stupid or bad behavior. Might it be that the evil half of me shows up?

I found this sketch in a sketch book of 1997:

‘You cannot do anything other than let your own monster ride along with you on your back, otherwise it will devour you.’

The other text is not of importance now.

I wrote this a long time ago.

I have always tried to stay far from defining making art a therapy, a self-analysis/confrontation, but I cannot escape the thought that this is the cause of my unwanted memories to pop up.

It must have to do with emptying my head. Letting loose and becoming more complete by putting down my defenses, I am confronted with myself more as how I really am, not as that easy going guy.

Maybe this is also why I paint paintings like ‘Black Dog ‘ and ‘Soul Kiss’. I feel the necessity of going there. It is an addiction.

'No mirrors arond, yet... lalala and the second self portrait.'

I try not to be a moralist in the sense that I want to lecture the world. It just so happens that I put my mirrored image in front of other’s people’s faces.

In this same realm of reflections the question arises: Why are most artists much better in painting hell than heaven? Why is painting hell so much more fun? Are we fascinated by our own dark side? Is it a cleaning of the soul?

What may count for me, counts for others as well?

We really love to paint hell…

Here’s Luca Signorelli’s vision. Does the Archangel have a sword or a brush in his hands?

I find solace in the thought that instead of what Hitler did I continue painting.

Why not give all these politicians here a brush?

As dessert, I offer a nice documentary about 'the gates of hell' by Rodin. 

VENICE.

Travels are for to step out of the usual. I needed a break and went to one of my all time favorite cities, Venice.

No cars, water everywhere, a labyrinth to get heavenly lost in (which one night I managed to do very well) and drinking lots of cappuccinos.

Three days were enough to charge the batteries.

I brought a good book to read.

My apartment was in Cannaregio, the old ghetto of Venice. I explored that neighborhood and discovered that even here one has to go to the limits to find peace and ‘real life’.

Did Aldo Rossi design these house blocks? Who can help me out? Street name: calle de Muschier.

Nor Sergio, nor Mauro had the answer.

The best part of Venice to live is Castello next to the Arsenale. You can still find little shops that don’t sell glass of Burano or masks made in China sold for ‘less than half of the price’. There are many quiet canals and squares.

SOUVENIRS.

I needed to buy presents for Gala.

I found the perfect ‘souvenirs’ in a shop next to Sergio’s studio.

In a little alley you find a bookshop that perfectly fits in a Tim Burton movie. I had seen it before, but it had always been closed.

Outside there are bookshelves with novels and other for the price of 1 or 2 euros. On the door hangs a carton box in which you deposit the money for the books you bought.

But the best is in the shop.

Sergio introduced me to Luciano, the shopkeeper. Apart from a bookseller, he is a ‘restauratore e reciclatore ricreativo’ and a ‘fisico teorico’. We had a lively discussion influenced by the smell of alcohol. Luciano needs to be inspired.

I bought two objects for Gala: a metal dog and a mini skateboard for incense. Luciano makes objects like these out of rubbish.

Luciano is ‘into wheels’. He makes dog sculptures on wheels and asked me why the wheel does not exist in nature. I got half way (he was pleasantly surprised). His explanation: all living things in nature grow. They need to be supplied and therefore veins that carry the ‘food’. The veins will snap in a situation of a turning object within another.

I came up the Wentelteefjes (invented by M. C. Escher), known to him too.

If the whole animal turns into a wheel, it does not count.

More subjects were discussed. If I had stayed for the rest of the week, we would have solved all the problems of the world. Luciano is that kind of a man.

I am concerned about the future of the Venice I love and charish. That is why I ask all of you romantic and lost souls to pay at least a visit to Lucianos shop. If a souvenir is too expensive, buy some books. It is not too late to act against all the into horrible tourist attractions turned monuments and shops!

TITIAN IN THE FRARI AND OTHERS.

I did not overeat on art this trip; I needed a break. But the Basilica dei Frari could not be left aside. Titian! Who can become so illustrious that in the same church where there is a painting, that same painting is copied in a basso relief in a monument that honors you?

This church is so overwhelming. The beautiful Bellini painting (sorry, no image, I can keep going on and on) and the outrageous monument to Giovanni Pesaro amongst others...

In this monument slaves carry the heavy load of the rests of dear Giovanni. In another part of the church three deformed hunchbacks carry the rests of Jacopo Marcello. Art is a heavy load to carry...

Of course I went to see some of the Biennale, but there was not really something that I find worth talking about. Time will tell if I am wrong.

Just one more image of Venice and then it is time to move on.

MILAN.

After Venice I spent two days in Milan and was washed clean by lots of rain. It did not discourage Mauro and I seeing modern and a little less modern architecture.

We were prepared!

How I love the Milan trams!

Milan is always shopping music and books.

I bought a book about the arts, it will help me much with my understanding of not only old art, I hope.

I did not find the cd I wanted of Renato Zero (Mauro is a fan too, see our hats). 

Renato Zero is by far the worst and craziest dressed cantautore. But after a couple of glasses of wine, he brings tears to my eyes. Maybe because he dresses the way he does. You just don't expect it.

For years I have resisted. When with Anna walking through Rome near Campo dei Fiori, she would indicate where Renato and his band would go for dinner; I'd always change subject. Only the last three years I am a fan.

I guess wisdom comes with the years or sentimentality or both...

SENTIMENTAL: OLD ART OF MINE IN MILAN.

This triptych I made in 1989, if I remember well, it is called 'Homage to Michelangelo'. It is one of two reasonably big works that are in Milano in a private collection. Sweet memories… I had a show and sold out, those were the days... 

To finish this a bit confused blog, with tears in my eyes, I'd love to have you listen to a song of Zero ('Magari', 'Cercami' or 'I migliori anni della nostra vita') but fear it is too hard core, so let's go back to Venice, city for lost and melancolic souls...

Click on the image for some Vivaldi.

A curious optical thing is the case with ‘The Happy Family’ (painting finished on October 12, 2017).

Some paintings do better on the screen, some don’t. Some look bigger, some smaller.

In this case, when I look at the painting on the screen, it makes me wonder if it is ok. Seeing it on the wall it gives me faith.

Why?

This painting is very tightly constructed. The shown is quite violent and locked within circles and ellipses. Movements continue, jump from one to the other.

Seen on a small screen the movement might be too closed within itself.

In the photo where it hangs in the space (last square on the bottom right on the site) it works better.

Three heads on one canvas of this size is a lot. There is not much breathing space.

Looking back, I preferred to make a painting with a simular subject on a size 200 by 300 cm.

See ‘The Praying Mantis’, ‘The Kites’, ‘The Three Brothers’ and ‘The Untouchables’ (all much bigger in size than 'The Happy Family' and all painted in the late eighties and early nineties).

Another problem that occurs is that in the details I went quite deep. It’s like a double gin with cognac and whiskey…

I have an assignment and as a preparation I went back to these ‘subjects’ (in the commission movement will be an important issue).

At least, that is what I thought.

But is this true or is something else going on as well?

I consider the year 1989 a turning point in my painting life. Things that had shown up in works now and then, fell into place with the painting ‘From Tongue to Penis’.

Apart from me finding a path to walk on, a big event took place in 1990. I moved to New York not long after.

And here the shoe feels tight and a bit strange. 

For the ones who are interested, read the story:

The passing away of my mother and the great American adventure 

(click on the title and you go to the story)

So why am I painting ‘in this way’ again?

I have a half way my spine creeping up belief that my work illustrates my state of being and even announces future events of importance to me… Or am I just reliving a ‘Renaissance’ of an old period?

Let's zoom in on ‘The Happy Family’.

Here in Barcelona turbulence is felt with all the nationalistic uproar. I confess to have all but nationalistic sentiments.

Some time ago I was at a dinner where apart from the good food all was talk about this narrowminded seperatism. Sorry, I cannot think about this matter in a more uplifting way. Franco had to pass over the table between the main course and desert, as if he was still alife. Old wounds are kept alife very carfully, so we can move backwards. What about a better future for all?

What is happening to the ‘old Europe’ and elsewhere in the Western world? Will we split up in quarreling tribes like the Middle Ages?

It was a big surprise to see a friend of mine, who was very dedicated to the 'International Proletarian Course' feeling sympathy for this, what I consider, little bourgeois sentiment of ‘Blut und Boden’. Are even many so called left wing people turning into narrow minded separatists? Are we concentrating more on our own fat belly buttons instead of trying to make this world a better place for all?

The painting is the illustration of what I see happening.

And as how I see it, we will only loose (even if many of the involved believe that they will benefit from the sentiments like ‘we are the goodies and the others the baddies, so let's get rid of them’).

Here is the image of our 'Happy Family'; click on it for a better look.

Time to reconcider what to sing for a better future... (and read the text, Friedrich Schiller: An die Freude!)

Click on the video below and join in.

On Facebook I am member of a group of art lovers. They put images of art works on the page and write comments. Not long ago I read a series of comments on a work by Maurizio Cattelan imitating Lucio Fontana’s ‘concetti spaziali’. There was quite some quarrelling going on. Some took it all with humour, others were insulted. ‘The holy Fontana was ridiculed!’

What do I think about all these ‘concetti spaziali’?

As an explanation of how he came to cut a canvas, I heard that one morning he was desperate. He did not know what to paint and how. So he cut the canvas. What a revelation! The space behind or within the canvas!

'Concetto Spaziale', Lucio Fontana.

As a gesture I appreciate the first one. It is good to every once in a while explore new territories in painting.

But then to make a whole series…

I understand he did so. It’s the market. One museum has a ‘concetto’ so many others must follow. But after a while, I would get very, very bored cutting up all those canvasses...

After the first one or even three a photo would be more than sufficient, or an A4 explanation.

Remembering Magritte’s 'pipe' that turned out to be a painting, Kosuth helped me out.

'One and three chairs,' Kosuth

Not very original, but still, for many, many art works where the thought is more important than the execution, it can save many museums spending their money on boring repetitions.

Just hang a photo... Or have somebody cut up a canvas, it is the idea that counts... 

Don't come with that Fonatana was the only one to know where the cut should be made...

Art talks about art, gives new twists to old images.

Might Fontana's ‘concetto’ have been a newer version or comment on ‘l’origine du monde’?

'l’Origine du monde', Courbet.

This reminds me of a sketch I made (a nice interpretation of Courbet, Fontana and Kosuth):

‘The woman left her vagina on the chair', Bert van Zelm (click on the image to go to the sketch on the site).

Art talks about art. Artists take old concepts and turn them into new concepts. Art makes you look at the world in new ways. Should we consider the mentally disturbed man who cut the 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue' as the post Fontana artist?

'Concetto Spaziale' by unknown artist and Barnet Newman.

And then there was Maurizio Cattelan.

'Zorro', Maurizio Cattelan.

I find his version funny.

My version of a 'concetto spaziale' is a bit over the top, I guess...

'Concetto Spaziale', Johannes Vermeer and Bert van Zelm.

I will keep on trying.

I still have the idea of making this museum with the many artworks made by famous artists that seemingly can very easily repeated. It should be not too difficult. Maybe start a crowd funding action?

I wrote about this idea in my blog of 21-01-2016: ABOUT FAKE ('THIS IS NOT A MUSEUM'). Click on the title to go to the blog.

And then Gala can help me out!

Gala and Maurizio Cattelan...