Traditions & Crossovers
Studio – Teaching – Engagement – Publications
In the early 1980s, I wanted to return to Europe, to my ‘own’ painting tradition of ‘sideway light captured in oil paint’.
But while painting the series ‘Erotic Landscapes’, the question arose: how do I combine the old with modern painting?
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Studio
The anatomy lesson -/- Erotic landscapes
Faces of Asia
How to connect east with west
Without losing identity?
Selfies
Self portrait as Lord Shiva -/- Self portrait as Soup Turtle
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Rockin’ Kimono’s
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‘Old’ painting is the illusion of a three-dimensional ‘reality’ on a flat surface.
‘Modern’ art is the autonomy of form and colour.
In the series ‘Rockin’ Kimono’s’, I connected the ‘classical illusion’ with autonomous applications.
The two-dimensional with the three-dimensional
Drawing/Graphics/Comics
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Armadillo
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Armadillo was set up as a sheet for a score by the composer Sytze Smit and was later transformed into a graphic novel with the Gilgamesh epic as a narrative counterpoint.
Etchings
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I make a screen print for the Liberation Manifestation Groningen (exhibitions a.o. Groninger museum and several provincial capitals) and design the logo for the foundations ‘Monument & Material’ and ‘WWK’.
The Frankenstein-construction
I illustrate the pamphlet ‘The Frankenstein Construction’ (author D.Kraaijpoel, publisher Academy Minerva) that opposes a merger of the academy with other H.B.O. institutions to form the Rijkshogeschool Groningen.
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Plein air
Rodellar
I travel through Europe, Turkey and Egypt,
But the most inspiring place was Rodellar in the Pyrenees.
Architecture
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the description of the Free State of Rottum
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Islands and structure of Rottum
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I worked on the architecture of the future: the description of the Free State of Rottum, designing five different schools of architecture within an industrial building style.
The Post-antique School: The Central Bath
To make it accessible, I write a connecting story.
The Hard School: the Great Market
In it, I have the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, after the apocalyptic ‘Great Trouble’, embark on an adventurous exploration tour to the unknown shores of the North Sea.
The Free School: The Dom and Hermeten Park
When he landed in Rottum, he met a failed architect, Adolf Loose, who made acidic comments on the local architecture.
The Golden School: The Town Hall
Meanwhile, Ibn Battuta encounters nothing but trouble in a foreign culture, where hospitality does not count, where everything revolves around interests and where football supporters are not afraid of violence.
Antarchis: the Assistance
But thanks to his enterprising Harem and with the support of an obscure Islamic society, the Karakoyun, he manages to pull through.
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Teaching
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In 1984, he coordinated the opening event of the new Minerva Academy with a large number of lectures, theatre performances, symposia, exhibitions and a royal opening.
New building Minerva Academy
Initiates in- and extracurricular (post-academic) courses Art in Commission, Minerva Academy, partly in cooperation with the Academy of Architecture.
Becomes coordinator of all part-time courses in 1986.
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Engagement
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He is an advisor to the BBK (chairman Frits Linnemann) and a member of the Council of the Netherlands Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
He is also a member of the art advisory committee artcommissions for the University of Groningen, and chairman of the art advisory committees for the new Minerva Academy and the new Conservatoire.
He is a member of the board and since 1986 chairman (and unpaid director) of the WWK Foundation, and manages about 80 studios in 7 buildings.
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Publications
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Writes for the BBK the memoranda ” the artist in Appelscha” (concerning regional money flows) and “income position visual artists” (this is followed by the ministry of Culture – evaluation in 1988 concerning “The money flux visual arts); “The quality of the policy” following the ministry of Culture-evaluation 1988; (edited by BBK, analysis of the effects of the WVC money fluxes) and the discussion memorandum “Structure & adventure”, about the organization of (mainly) decentralized visual arts policy (this led to study days in Haarlem, Deventer and Maastricht).
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Click here to open PDF: Prologue Rottum Book I
Click here to open PDF: Astrological Birthday calendar
Click here to open PDF: a chapter of Armadillo
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Video
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Click here to open video: Cappadocia in 1980