Out of Art 2014#1

Magazine voor actuele Outsider Art

Jaargang 9 nummer 1 mei 2014 prijs â‚Ź 7,95

Thema: landschap

Voorwoord Met trots presenteren we vanaf deze zeventiende editie van Out of Art voortaan een Engels tekstgedeelte. Hierin worden de hoofdartikelen vertaald om te kunnen voldoen aan de toenemende vraag van lezers naar een bredere ontsluiting van de rubrieken en thema-artikelen in dit magazine.

Out of Art is een uitgave van Art Moves onder auspiciën van am Foundation en verschijnt twee keer per jaar.

Redactie Out of Art Prins Hendriklaan 43, 1075 ba Amsterdam Tel. 020-675 63 00 info@out-of-art.nl www.out-of-art.nl Werkgroep Out of Art 17: Frits Gronert, Eva von Stockhausen, Karin Verboeket en Phia Verstraete Aan dit nummer werkten verder mee: Richard Bennaars, Patrick Perin en Cynthia Thumm.

Vertaling: Language Unlimited Vormgeving: Van Rosmalen & Schenk, Amsterdam Druk: Drukkerij Tesink, Zutphen Omslag: Els de Ruiter, Boom, 2003/2006, oliekrijt op papier, 60 x 50 (uitsnede) Abonnementen/subscriptions Out of Art Abonnementenland Postbus 20, 1910 aa Uitgeest Tel. 0900 - 226 52 63 Fax 0251 - 310 405 klantenservice@aboland.nl www.aboland.nl De eerste abonnementsperiode geldt voor bepaalde tijd en kan niet tussentijds beëindigd worden. Abonnementen worden na de eerste abonnementsperiode omgezet naar een jaar­ abonnement, tenzij u tenminste 3 maanden voor het eindigen van de abonnementsperiode opzegt.

Abonnementsprijs in Nederland € 15,- per jaar Subscription inside Europe € 22.50 and outside Europe € 27.50 Voor verkooppunten zie www.out-of-art.nl Niets uit dit magazine mag worden verveelvoudigd of openbaar gemaakt zonder voorgaande toestemming van de uitgever.

Dit keer staat het landschap centraal. Na een korte introductie volgt een artikel over een Zeeuws landschap waarin duidelijk wordt wat de omringende omgeving kan losmaken bij kunstenaars. Het stadslandschap van Livia Dencher krijgt aandacht en natuurlijk is er plaats ingeruimd voor de wereldberoemde Fransman Henri Rousseau. Zijn geschilderde landschappen in min of meer naïeve stijl, werden al vanaf rond de vorige eeuwwisseling alom gewaardeerd door collega-schilders en kunsthistorici. En nog steeds stralen vooral zijn jungleschilderijen iets bijzonder mystieks uit. Iemand die zich ook direct door het landschap laat inspireren, is de Belg Rémy Pierlot. Hij maakt graag lange voettochten en heeft een gevoelige manier van tekenen. Zijn langwerpige landschappen nodigen uit tot dwalen op papier. Op de omslag prijkt een boom van Els de Ruiter. Zij maakte een opvallend heldere reeks van bomen in abstracte omgevingen, met veel lijn en kleur.

In ‘Ik ben ik’ komt de veelzijdige Zweedse alleskunner Henrik Pätzke aan het woord. Hij praat over zijn motivatie, redenen en enthousiasme voor de kunsten. Ronald en Joyce de Ruuk staan centraal in de rubriek ‘Einzeloze begeerte’. Zij vertellen over hun gedeelde passie voor kunst en in het bijzonder over hun verzameling Outsider Art en etnografica; een levendig portret van begeesterde collectioneurs. De recent verschenen monografie over Sylvain Cosijns wordt gerecenseerd en in ‘Bezocht en bekeken’ wordt de fraaie tentoonstelling van Raw Vision in Parijs toegelicht, waarmee het internationale karakter van Out of Art nog eens wordt onderstreept; nu dus voortaan aangevuld met een Engelse vertaling.

Karin Verboeket

© 2014

Out of Art 18 verschijnt december 2014 met een themanummer over trauma.

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Inleiding op het thema landschap Korte introductie op wat onder kunst en landschap kan worden verstaan binnen de Outsider Art én in dit magazine. Wat blijkt?

Het is niet zo’n voor de hand liggend thema, maar het biedt wel verrassende mogelijkheden. Met een korte toelichting op de artikelen.

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Bunderkunst in Zeeland Over gespleten bomen, rituele verbrandingen, beesten, ­vliegtuigen en andere kunstzinnige constructies in het groen.

Wat landschap met kunstenaars kan doen. Of het nu outsiders of insiders betreft.

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Organische landschappen van Livia Dencher Ra, ra, waar zijn nou die uitgesneden Halloween pompoenen in dit stadslandschap dat een spooklandschap is?

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Henri Rousseau: landschappen en ­jungleschilderijen Deze ‘naïef’ baarde rond 1900 opzien met zijn mystieke ­landschappen. Picasso,Kandinsky en anderen bewonderden de landschappen van Henri Rousseau. Hij drong zelfs door tot de canon van de kunstgeschiedenis. Een bijdrage uit Museum Charlotte Zander.

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Rémy Pierlot, landschapsman Hij wandelt urenlang. Hij tekent langwerpige vellen papier vol met poëtisch aandoende landschappen. Dat alles in een “­oneindig palet”.

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Els de Ruiter Vrij onder de bomen Een indrukwekkende reeks heldere tekeningen van bomen in abstracte landschappen. Gemaakt uit heimwee naar haar kindertijd? Toen zij vrij nog onder de bomen kon spelen?

Rubrieken

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Ik ben ik; Henrik Pätzke In de wereld tussen anderen Zweden is de thuisbasis van deze non-conformistische kunstenaar die zijn eigen kleding maakt en een meer dan veelzijdig oeuvre aan het opbouwen is. Een intrigerend proces vanuit een “vacuüm” naar het maken van kunst.

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Im memoriam Charlotte Zander We staan stil bij het overlijden van Charlotte Zander; een groot collectioneur van Outsider Art in Duitsland.

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Eindeloze begeerte; Ronald en Joyce de Ruuk Gedeelde passie Zij zijn het over hun keuzes altijd eens. Ze kopen kunst zonder “rechtlijnig plan” en zien zichzelf daarom niet als echte verzamelaars. Ondanks hun begerenswaardige collectie.

Een portret van betrokken kunstliefhebbers in de hoofdstad.

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Recent verschenen Monografie Sylvain Cosijns Boekrecensie met aandacht voor commentaar van smaakmakers. Een uitgave van het actieve MadMusée in Luik.

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Bezocht en bekeken ‘Raw Vison’; 25 ans de l’Art Brut Hartje Parijs. Het jubilerende magazine Raw Vision in een tentoonstelling verbeeld. Over klassiekers, dames in strakke pakjes, aanstekelijke monsters en een verhaal over de dodencel. De Halle Saint Pierre doet het weer: een tentoonstelling om voor naar Parijs af te reizen.

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English section Agenda Poëzie: Sander van Binsbergen

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Inleiding op het thema

Landschap

Karhang Mui Middeleeuwsmorgendorp,2013 Kleurpotlood op papier, 50 x 65 cm

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Thema: landschap tekst: karin verboeket foto: iris de maaker

In de kunstgeschiedenis lijken schilderkunst en landschap onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Wie hieraan denkt, ziet als vanzelf schilderijen van Hollandse Meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw op het netvlies verschijnen. Hele reeksen ­cultureel erfgoed trekken in een denkbeeldige stoet voorbij. Weidse verten, lage horizonnen en al dan niet dreigende wolkenpartijen zijn vertrouwde beelden. Hoewel bekend is dat veel kunstenaars in de zeventiende eeuw geïdealiseerde versies van de werkelijkheid maakten, lijkt het alsof zij schilderden wat zij zagen. Dat geldt ook voor hun collega’s in de negentiende eeuw, die er met veld­ezel, verf en penselen op uit trokken om ‘en plein air’ te schilderen. Hun landschappen werden verbeeld als momentopname, met veel aandacht voor een zacht, vaak zilveren licht. Later stopten symbolisten en expressionisten hun landschappen vol met mysterieuze betekenissen en heftige emoties. Zo werd het landschap een metafoor voor iets heel anders dan de zichtbare werkelijkheid die wij als beschouwer in eerste instantie denken te zien.

Binnen de Outsider Art

Dat de natuur ook ‘outsiders’ inspireert tot het scheppen van grootse, opmer­kelijke creaties is bekend. Veel bouwwerken of zogenaamde ‘environments’ worden gemaakt om duizenden redenen: om de lege ruimte te vullen, om een ideale wereld te scheppen, angsten te bezweren of gewoonweg om alles mooier te maken door het plaatsen van wonderlijke ­constructies van wegwerpmateriaal of gevonden voorwerpen. Maar hier is het landschap geen thema op zich. Eerder is het een geschikt p­ odium voor creaties van gedreven bouwers.

Hetzelfde zien we in de vaak ontroerende scènes uit het boeren­leven van geïsoleerd levende gemeenschappen in de zuidelijke Staten van Amerika. Kunstenaars die werken in de sfeer van de Folk Art, duiden het landschap doorgaans summier aan; meer als passende entourage. De meeste aandacht gaat hier uit naar het verhaal.

Anders dan hun via de kunstgeschiedenis bekend geworden collega’s, werken kunstenaars binnen de sfeer van de Outsider Art vrijwel nooit zomaar buiten om het omringende landschap in alle

rust vast te leggen. Zo gaat dat meestal niet. Beweerd wordt wel dat ‘outsiders’ zich meer laten leiden door hun binnen­ wereld dan door de wereld die zich visueel aan hen openbaart.

Dat maakt de keuze voor het landschap als thema voor dit m ­ agazine misschien niet voor de hand liggend, maar wel boeiend.

Het ­land­schap, mits dat (onbewust) inspireert, kan immers wel gaan f­ uncti­o­neren als een bruikbare vorm waarmee de kunstenaar iets met de buitenwereld kan delen. Of het nu gaat om een compleet landschap of om een element daaruit. Wat er uiteindelijk mee gezegd of gedeeld wordt, maakt voor de waardering van het l­andschap dat wij te zien krijgen, niets uit.

In dit magazine

Dichterbij de klassieke opvatting van het landschap als thema van de schilderkunst, komen onder meer de naïeven uit OostEuropa. In een warm palet en een eenvoudige, decoratief aandoende stijl, ­leggen autodidacten hun plattelands­ omgeving vast in harmonieuze sferen.

Eerder besteedden we hieraan in Out of

Art aandacht binnen het thema ‘naïeve kunst’ (zie ook jaargang 6, nummer 1, mei 2011).

Een kenmerkend voorbeeld van een schilder die in naïeve stijl het geziene én het gedroomde landschap als een van zijn hoofdthema’s verbeeldde, is de Fransman Henri Rousseau (1844-1910).

Wie goed kijkt, kan overmand worden door het gevoel te zijn verdwaald in de verstikkende sfeer van duimendik gebladerte. Zijn smaragdgroene jungleschilderijen baarden ook in zijn eigen tijd opzien.

In de Westerse wereld werken en wonen veel hedendaagse ‘outsiders’ tegenwoordig in, of in de buurt van stedelijk gebied.

Soms manifesteert de natuur zich nog op de drempel van hun bestaan. Dichtbij.

Dan kun je er wandelingen in maken, lange strooptochten, zoals de Belg Rémy Pierlot gewend is te doen. In elk geval iets van wat hij tijdens die voettochten ervaart, lijkt terecht te komen in zijn horizontale, organische pastel­tekeningen, vol van kleur en vorm.

Soms moet er gereisd worden om landschap te zien en te ervaren. Ver. Maar gelukkig is er altijd nog de fantasie die het landschap soms tot een stedelijke impressie kan maken, zoals te zien in het werk van Livia Dencher. Of tot een bijna abstracte weergave van de boom als doorslaggevend element in het landschap, zoals Els de Ruiter toont.

Hoe het landschap van invloed is op het beeldende werk van kunstenaars, is moeilijk te zeggen en voor iedereen anders. Dat het van invloed is, wordt hopelijk duidelijk. Om maar meteen te beginnen met het hier navolgende verhaal over een Zeeuwse oase die kunstenaars anders dan anders doet creëren.

Outsiders én insiders.

Hoe het landschap van invloed is op het beeldende werk van kunstenaars, is moeilijk te zeggen en voor iedereen anders.

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Thema: landschap tekst: phia verstraete

Onderaan de bocht van de dijk die door het ringdorp ’s Heer Arendskerke slingert, ligt het hoveniers­ bedrijf Allemekinders-Beveland groenprojecten.

Een deel van het werkgebied is beschikbaar gesteld aan hedendaagse kunstenaars. Tussen de bomen, langs verscholen paadjes en geurige kruiden en bloemen laten kunstenaars hun sporen na in de grote tuin.

Benieuwd naar de invloed op het beeldend werk van deze kunstenaars en het geheim achter dit stukje grond, ga ik op bezoek bij Anja Allemekinders.

Wellicht kan zij een tipje van de sluier oplichten.

Het gesprek met Anja Allemekinders komt al snel op de mooie omgeving waar zij en haar man Sjaak wonen. Hun grond vormt de grens tussen de beschermde natuurge­ bieden De Poel en De Zak van Zuid-Beveland. De vele ­kilometers kronkelige dijk, de welen en de kreekrestanten herinneren hier nog steeds aan de eeuwenlange grimmige strijd tegen het water. In mei en juni lijkt het alsof er een sneeuwtapijt is neergedaald over deze oude gronden.

De meidoorn en het fluitenkruid bloeien dan in overvloed en de hele zomer genieten wandelaars, fietsers, ornitho­ logen en plantenliefhebbers van dit natuurschoon. “Het is een bevoorrechte plek om te wonen”, vindt Anja.

Een klein deel van het werkgebied bleken zij niet nodig te hebben. “Vroeger was het een speelplaats voor onze kinderen. ‘We gaan op ons ‘Bundertje’ spelen, riepen ze altijd’.” Een bunder is een Brabantse uitdrukking voor ongeveer 10.000 vierkante meter grond.

Louterende werking

Vroeger hadden de Allemekinders nog niet zoveel met kunst, maar dat veranderde in 2003. Als protest tegen de Westerschelde Container Terminal in Zeeland, vroeg het kunstenaarscollectief ‘Trechter Vijf’ of zij de Bunder mochten gebruiken voor het presenteren van kunst­ objecten. Gertjan Evenhuis, kunstenaar uit Vlissingen, participeerde in het project. Uit woede tegen het onrecht in de eenentwintigste eeuw ontwierp hij zijn kunstwerk.

Op internet schrijft Evenhuis “Het beeld dat mij na enkele weken voor ogen stond, ontwikkelde zich uit de behoefte iets te maken dat geheel in zijn ontworpen omgeving op zou gaan: ik meldde mij bij de organisatie met de wens een complete boom, inclusief wortels te

Gertjan Evenhuis Andra moi, 2003 Foto: Gertjan Evenhuis Rechts onderdelen van de boom, verspreid over de Bunder.

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Bunderkunst in

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Ik ben ik; Henrik Pätzke tekst: richard bennaars foto’s: mirjam lagergren en lotte nillsson-välimaa

In de wereld tussen anderen In Galerie Herenplaats interviewde ik in 2013 een oude bekende, de Zweed Henrik Pätzke (1973). Deze boomlange, slanke jongeman richtte er samen met collega-kunstenaars en begeleiders de expositie ‘Room of our Own’ in. Hij oogde zichtbaar gelukkig dat hij hier met zijn werk in zo’n grote ruimte aan de gang kon. De tentoonstelling presenteerde textiele werkvormen en andere kunstwerken van een groep outsider kunstenaars van Inuti 2 uit Stockholm. Terwijl Pätzke druk bezig was de laatste hand te leggen aan de inrichting en in de weer was met zelf gemaakte kledingstukken en andere creaties van textiel, hervatten we een gesprek dat jaren eerder al was gestart.

Eerder in Rotterdam

Het was namelijk niet voor het eerst dat Pätzke de havenstad Rotterdam bezocht. In 2010 werkte hij al voor de vierde keer enkele weken in een van de satellietateliers van Atelier Herenplaats. Een periode waarin hij liet zien een begenadigd en gedreven kunstenaar te zijn die aan een serie doeken werkte en worstelde om er lijn in te krijgen. In die tijd schilderde hij in acryl (zelf)portretten, mensfiguren in theatrale houdingen en abstracte werken, voornamelijk in aardetinten. Tussendoor werkte hij met naald en draad aan een broek en een shirt, ook weer in diezelfde aardetinten.

Hij vertelde me toen al dat zijn interesses vele facetten kende die hij allemaal zeer de moeite waard vond. Voor een select publiek voerde hij tijdens de presentatie van zijn Rotterdamse werk, in zelfgemaakte kleren en op gracieuze wijze, een

inuti.se

Henrik Pätzke Tepee, 2013 Gemengde techniek, 300 x 170 cm Particuliere collectie

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korte dans ten tonele. Vol vuur ver­ telde hij over de geschilderde doeken, zijn kleding en zijn achterliggende motivatie.

Zijn belangrijkste thema is vooral hoe hij als mens in de wereld staat tussen anderen. Hoe hij zich uniek voelt, maar zichzelf ook beschouwt als een buitenbeentje met zijn be­­ perkingen én zijn gave zich creatief te uiten. Zijn portretten vertellen daar meer over; de mensfiguren in dramatische poses tonen als het ware Henriks dans in de wereld t­ ussen de anderen. Hiermee probeert hij zijn woorden over het waarom van zijn kunst kracht bij te zetten.

Veelzijdigheid blijkt een belangrijk kenmerk van zijn oeuvre. Behalve

Henrik Pätzke På isrinken (on ice rink) Olie op genaaid doek, 55 x 55 cm Collectie Umeå cultural management

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dat hij zeer bedreven is in tekenen, schilderen en werken met textiel, is hij zich vol overgave op keramische objecten gaan richten. Ook hier staat de mens in al zijn facetten centraal: mensfiguren, portretten, maskers, dans en beweging, figuratief of abstract. Het lijkt alsof die stroom aan ideeën hem een tomeloze ­energie geeft. Een ‘drive’ om verder op onderzoek te gaan naar steeds meer uitdagingen.

“Een soort afzondering”

Aan de vooravond van de opening van ‘Room of our Own’ vertelde Henrik me wat meer over zichzelf.

“Ik ben in 1973 geboren in Stockholm van ouders die ondernemers zijn in

werktuiggereedschappen en waar ik een gelukkige jeugd heb gekend. Ik kreeg de mogelijkheid om onderwijs te volgen op progressieve scholen, zoals de Montessori school, en samen met mijn ouders heb ik vaak musea en theaters bezocht. Kunst was een vast onderdeel van het totaal aan programma’s op school en ik voelde mij er als een vis in het water. Op veertienjarige leeftijd voelde mijn lichaam heel slecht en kreeg ik vaak vage klachten. Dat verergerde tot aan mijn zestiende jaar en ik bezocht steeds frequenter de dokter. Die vertelde me dat mijn lichaam een zeer ongebruikelijke en zeer snelle stofwisseling heeft. In het voorjaar van 1989 kreeg ik zulke ernstige hoofd­

Henrik Pätzke Shetted wool Olie op genaaid doek, 70 x 55 cm

pijnen dat ik moest worden opgenomen in een ziekenhuis. De toestand was zorgelijk; ik raakte drie weken in coma en bleef vier maanden onder medische zorg vanwege een hersenvliesontsteking. Een lange periode van revalidatie volgde en ik kon een lange periode niet naar school of studeren. Een hele gekke periode van een soort afzondering ontstond er en het leek of ik in een soort van vacuüm terecht was gekomen. Zoals veel jongeren op die leeftijd was ik een beetje bezig met poëzie en ­tekenen.

Zo rond mijn achttiende ben ik terug gegaan naar de zogenaamde ‘Volks Hochschule’ en vervolgde ik mijn opleiding aan het Gymnasium vanaf mijn negentiende tot en met

Henrik Pätzke In the corner Olie op genaaid doek, 70 x 55 cm

mijn eenentwintigste. Ik moest (en moet nog steeds) zeer attent op mijn lichaam blijven dat extra zorg nodig heeft. Zo moet ik tot op heden op meerdere momenten per dag eten.

En cognitief functioneer ik niet meer als voorheen als gevolg van de eerder opgelopen hersenvliesontsteking.

Desondanks werd ik vanwege mijn talent toch toegelaten tot een kunstschool aan de oostkust van Zweden.

De opleiding maakte ik af, maar ik bleef me zorgen maken over mijn toekomst vanwege mijn beperkingen op lichamelijk en verstandelijk vlak.”

Non-conformisme

Omdat duidelijk werd dat een leven zonder begeleiding niet meer tot de

mogelijkheden behoorde en omdat Henrik zo’n explosieve drang had zich artistiek verder te ontwikkelen, meldde hij zich op aanraden van een kennis in 2002 aan bij de Inuti ateliers.

Zonder zich te willen conformeren aan regels binnen het creatieve proces en omdat zijn interesses zo breed zijn, wijdt hij zijn tijd sindsdien volledig aan creatieve processen binnen het atelier. Vanwege zijn lengte van ongeveer 2.10 meter, is het moeilijk betaalbare en interessante kleren te kopen. Hij besloot zich dan ook toe te gaan leggen op het ontwerpen en maken van zijn eigen kleding.

Zijn non-conformistische houding ontplooit zich op vele terreinen. Al snel verdiepte hij zich ook in dans en p

Henrik Pätzke Endorphines Olie op genaaid doek, 70 x 55 cm

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Takken en bladeren

Rousseau, een eenvoudige Parijse douanier, had een grote passie voor de natuur, wat al blijkt uit zijn v­ roegste schilderwerken. Twee bloemenstillevens Bouquet de roses en Bouquet de penséas uit de jaren 1881 en 1882 zijn daarvan het bewijs: de aanblik van volle rozen en dicht op elkaar staande viooltjes in een simpele g­ lazen beker of eenvoudige vaas geven een indruk van ‘stille grootsheid’.

Rousseau schilderde echter maar weinig stillevens: zijn vroege werken (rond 1875/85) zijn veel meer op de landschapsschilderkunst gericht. De tolhuisjes waarin Rousseau werkte als ‘gabelou’ (een soort douanier), lagen

buiten de stad Parijs, langs de belangrijkste toegangs­ wegen. Op deze plekken van overgang tussen stad en land maakte Rousseau, die zelf in de stad woonde, kennis met de landelijke omgeving van Parijs, in het bijzonder de vredige, weinig spectaculaire landschappen langs de rivieren de Marne en de Oise. Vooral de Oise oefende grote aantrekkingskracht uit op Rousseau, net als op de impressionisten enkele tientallen jaren eerder.

Het werk Bord de Rivière toont enkele kenmerkende elementen in het werk van deze schilder: kleine, ­kubus­vormige huisjes, sleepboten, figuren en markante coulissen van bomen, waarbij speciale aandacht is

Henri Rousseau Vue de Bois de Boulogne, 1895-1896 Olie op doek, 33 x 41 cm Collectie Charlotte Zander

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besteed aan de takken en bladeren. Rousseau was gefascineerd door het weergeven van een bepaalde atmosfeer.

Zo kondigen de zwaar hangende, donkergrijze wolken het naderende onweer aan in het schilderij Le moulin à l’eau. In het schilderij met rivierlandschap La Rivière toont hij zich een gevoelig observator en imponeert hij de kijker met zijn eenvoudige, contemplatieve weergave van het natuurfragment, als het ware een ‘paysage intime’. In deze schilderijen staat voor Rousseau de werkelijkheid op het eerste plan, het zijn landschappen van zijn naar buiten gerichte blik, zijn daadwerkelijke waarneming en de kunstzinnige interpretatie daarvan. Hier legt hij

de kiem voor het merk Rousseau: grote, sterk vertakte bomen, dicht gebladerd, tot in het kleinste detail uitgewerkt, een zintuig voor het in scène zetten van de natuur, groene kleurtinten in alle varianten, af en toe een sterk kleuraccent en een sterk sfeergevoel.

Welige vegetatie

Rousseau bracht zijn vrije uren vaak door in de idyllische parken van Parijs, zoals de Jardin des Plantes of het Bois de Boulogne. In Vue de Bois de Boulogne toont Rousseau ons een toevallig gekozen hoekje van dit park. Dicht op elkaar staande bomen, in zelfverzekerde penseelstreken

Henri Rousseau La rivière Olie op karton, 27.5 x 29 cm Collectie Charlotte Zander

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Thema: landschap tekst: patrick perin foto’s: nicolas bomal

Het staat buiten kijf dat iedere kunstenaar een intieme relatie met zijn werk heeft en dat de thema’s van zijn werk hem na aan het hart liggen. Rémy Pierlot (1945) is hier een overduidelijk voorbeeld van. De afgelopen tien jaar heeft de kunstenaar zeer verschillende werken gemaakt, van linosneden en houtsnij­ werken tot tekeningen, monoprints en schilderijen. Je zou je kunnen voorstellen dat door het gebruik van deze verscheidenheid aan technieken en materialen coherentie in zijn werk ontbreekt of dat er moeilijk een samenhangende koers in te onderscheiden is. Echter, voor wie beter kijkt, is er toch een element dat in meer of mindere mate opvalt en dat altijd als een rode draad door deze werken heen loopt: het landschap.

Dit thema is uiteraard niet nieuw. Het komt in de geschiedenis van de kunst al sinds de tijd van de grotschilderingen steeds weer terug. Toen was het landschap zelf het materiaal voor het werk en bepaalde het soms zelfs de vorm ervan. Landschappen zijn in iedere periode een grote rol blijven spelen, via de sfumato uit de Renaissance en de romantische visie van Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1844) tot aan land art.

Als de benadering van Rémy Pierlot al niet puur instinctief is, dan is hij op zijn minst zeer nauw verbonden met zijn eigen leven. In zekere zin kun je zeggen dat de manier waarop een kunstenaar een landschap weergeeft een samenvatting is van zijn eigen ervaringen.

Om het werk van deze kunstenaar beter te begrijpen, is het essentieel om te weten dat Rémy Pierlot van het landschap houdt, met name van het platteland. Deze band

Rémy Pierlot Zonder titel, 2012 Gemengde techniek op papier, 39.7 x 109.8 cm Collectie: La ‘S’ Grand Atelier

Rémy Pierlot, landschapsman

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Rémy Pierlot Zonder titel, 2012 Gemengde techniek op papier, 40 x 110 cm Collectie: La ‘S’ Grand Atelier

met het landschap is absoluut geen toeval, daar het al sinds zijn kindertijd zijn leefomgeving vormt. Rémy Pierlot is afkomstig uit de Belgische Ardennen, waar bossen, akkers en rivieren een groot deel van de ruimte beslaan. Het is dus niet verrassend dat deze omgeving een essentieel onderwerp is in zijn werk. Bovendien houdt hij ervan om in zijn vrije tijd de wereld tijdens wekelijkse wandelingen te voet te ontdekken.

Deze levenswijze heeft op eenvoudige wijze duidelijk de behoefte geschapen om wat zijn ogen dagelijks zien over te brengen in zijn creaties. In zekere zin is dit werk een beeldend verlengstuk van het leven van de kunstenaar. De afgelopen jaren is het begrip landschap terug te vinden in een reeks belangrijke werken van

Pierlot. Het is niet voor niets dat zijn sculpturen voornamelijk van hout zijn. Door het bewerken van hout gaat hij terug naar de boom, als oriëntatiepunt, het geluid van de wind door de bladeren en de specifieke geur van zijn zwerftochten. Het is ook een manier om de natuur die zijn gezichtsveld vult te eren.

Het landschap weerspiegeld

Toen Rémy Pierlot in 2007 tijdens een project rondom stripverhalen gevraagd werd om samen met Vincent Fortemps (1967) een verhaal te creëren, vormde de natuur wederom de basisomgeving. Ook de titel ‘Titi des arbres’ geeft blijk van deze voorliefde voor de natuur. Deze thematiek komt terug in het werk ‘Nos terres sombres’, dat hij samen met Paz Boïra (1972) gemaakt heeft. Deze vertelling dompelt de schrijver en zijn assistent onder in een poëtische mijmering waarin de natuur de rode draad is. Het was in 2007 zeker geen vergissing van Messieurs Delmotte (1967) om de kunstenaar voor te stellen met een verzameling spiegels aan zijn kleren in het landschap rond te wandelen. Deze ‘performance’ is op camera vastgelegd en geeft een dromerig beeld van deze ‘landschapsman’, wiens lichaam doorboord lijkt te zijn door de ruimte om hem heen. Dankzij de spiegels weerspiegelt hij zelf het landschap en nodigt hij ons uit om zijn kijk op de wereld te bestuderen.

Een oneindig palet

De afgelopen twee jaar heeft Rémy Pierlot zich toegelegd op een nieuwe versie van het verhaal van Don Quichot. Gezien het voorafgaande is het niet moeilijk om je voor te stellen dat zijn interesse gewekt is door dit verhaal en het personage Don Quichot, dat het landschap doorkruist tijdens zijn poëtische zoektocht. Uit dit tijdrovende werk is een reeks monoprints voortgekomen met een zeer krachtige weergave van de landschappen en de lucht. Hierin zien we een beheersing van de materie die het mogelijk maakt om met eenvoudige nuances van grijs en zwart gevarieerde sferen te p

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hem in een streng zwart pak, wit overhemd, zwarte stropdas, zwarte schoenen en een opvallend grote bril.

Oom Jaap verscheen dikwijls fier rechtop op het formaat 50 bij 60 cm. Ook Tippie, haar lievelingshond die na twaalf jaar overleed, want “hij kreeg een spuitje“, was veelvuldig aanwezig in deze figuratieve tekeningen.

De drang om te tekenen bleef groot, net als haar productie. De indrukwekkende stapels tekeningen kregen een opslagplaats in het atelier. Geleidelijk begon Els zich te richten op andere onderwerpen en ontwikkelde zij een andere stijl.

Landschappen en dieren

De familieleden verdwenen langzamerhand naar de achtergrond. Dieren, bomen en bloemen werkte zij uit tot uitvergrote, kleurrijke vormen. Soms legde zij een stevig raster van lijnen over haar tekeningen waardoor de ondertekening verstopt lijkt. Na deze fase verschenen er grote hekwerken waarachter kleurige landschappen tevoorschijn kwamen. Vogels vliegen vrij rond, bloemen en bomen bloeien fleurig en de lucht is strakblauw met hier en daar wat witte wolkjes. Trefzeker en snel trekt ze haar lijnen. De landschappen hebben een krachtige uitstraling, vooral in tegenstelling tot de bijna kinder­ tekeningachtige figuurtjes die altijd vóór de hekken staan. “Het is veel te hoog om er overheen te klimmen”, licht ze het zichtbare verschil desgevraagd toe.

Tekenpen en kleurpotloden werden ingewisseld voor oliekrijt. Jammer is dat dit vette materiaal haar tekeningen soms bezoedelt met vingerafdrukken, maar haar interesseert het weinig. Els houdt van rommel om haar heen en wil niet gehinderd worden door het netjes ‘moeten’ werken. Dat is ook goed te zien aan haar tekentafel die bezaaid is met korte stompjes krijt en ontelbaar afgescheurde papieren omhulsels, afkomstig van de olie­ krijtjes. Opruimen, daar houdt ze niet van. Dus floddert zij wat met een doekje over de tafel; dat is meer dan genoeg. De pop is inmiddels verhuisd naar de stoel naast haar of ligt soms achteloos op de kast. Alleen af en toe nog heeft ze haar nodig om iets duidelijk te maken.

Vrij zijn onder de bomen

Bij het ouderlijk huis van Els de Ruiter hadden ze twee groentetuinen. Als haar moeder bij buurvrouw Jaantje p Els de Ruiter Boom, 2003 t/m 2006 Oliekrijt op papier, 50 x 60 cm

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Els de Ruiter Boom, 2003 t/m 2006 Oliekrijt op papier, 50 x 60 cm

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koffie dronk, mocht zij als kind onder de bomen spelen.

Nu ze volwassen is, kan ze nog verlangen naar die tijd waarin zij vrij en onbevangen speelde. “Ik ga nu alleen maar wandelen. Het is gezond een frisse neus te halen, maar spelen kan niet meer”, zegt ze. Het lijkt alsof heimwee naar deze ervaring in haar kindertijd een reden is om bomen zo’n centrale plaats te geven in haar werk.

In de reeks met bomenimpressies is goed te zien dat Els de figuratieve realiteit van haar vroegere tekeningen heeft losgelaten. Oom Jaap, Tippie de hond en de kinder­ lijke figuren zijn de grote afwezigen. Haar l­andschappen vertonen inmiddels abstracte, kleurige vlakken met uit­ vergrote details van bomen die volledig zijn ontsproten aan haar fantasie. Soms dansen ze in een vrolijk kleurenpalet, soms staan ze zwart en stil, zonder groen. Balancerend op diagonale lijnen veroorzaken de bomen een vreemdsoortig effect. Ze lijken elk moment om te kunnen vallen.

Een verloren, halve boomstam met takken vol bloesem en eigenaardige ronddraaiende, grijsgroene vormen onder een van de bomen, zijn enkele van de raadselachtige beeldelementen die zij slechts toelicht met “Ik houd van bomen in de winter en in de zomer”. Het waarom van deze elementen zal wel nooit opgelost worden.

Opvallend is ook de gele boom waarvan de bruine stam doet denken aan een knotwilg, zoals deze wel staan aan de rand van een sloot. Een wirwar van grillige takken steekt af tegen de lichtblauwe zomerlucht. Het vrolijke geel van het blad is als één vorm achter de takken getekend. Hoewel Els dit wel vaker doet, is het in deze gele boom wel heel uitgesproken. In een andere tekening met twee bruinblauwe bomen vormen de takken halverwege een afsnijding en schreef Els haar naam pontificaal in het midden.

Als vertaler heeft zij haar pop nauwelijks meer nodig. Ze is vrij genoeg om zelf te vertellen wat ze te zeggen heeft.

Els beschouwt de pop, die in de maxi-cosi ligt, nu als haar kind. “Ze moet wel naar mij luisteren”.

Inmiddels heeft Els de Ruiter een immens oeuvre op­gebouwd. Vooral haar tekeningen met de sterke zeggings­kracht van de bomen, vinden gretig aftrek bij leners en kopers. De kunstenares deert het allemaal niet zo.

Zij gaat met een tomeloze inzet en energie verder aan haar tekeningen die de laatste tijd wat minder bomen, maar wel weer heel andere onderwerpen tevoorschijn toveren.

Els de Ruiter Boom/Bomen, 2003 t/m 2006 Oliekrijt op papier, 50 x 60 cm

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artotheek.be

Bezocht en bekeken; ‘Raw Vision; 25 ans de l’Art Brut’ tekst: frits gronert foto’s: halle saint pierre en frits gronert

Ter gelegenheid van het vijfentwintigjarig bestaan van het Engels­ talige tijdschrift Raw Vision, organiseert de Halle Saint Pierre in Parijs een grote jubileumtentoonstelling.

Hoofdredacteur John Maizels startte het tijdschrift in 1989 en nu, een kwart eeuw later, is Raw Vision uitgegroeid tot een toonaangevend blad op het gebied van Outsider Art, Art Brut, hedendaagse Folk Art en Marginal Art; een fraaie ver­ zamelnaam voor alle overige spontane kunstwerken (denk aan kunst van amateurs, tattooartists, graffitispuiters en Street

Art). De belangstelling voor deze kunstvormen is groeiende, maar bestond al veel langer in onder andere de Verenigde Staten, waar Raw Vision dan ook een vestiging in New York heeft.

Galeriehouders en verzamelaars hebben er sinds jaar en dag zit­ ting in de redactie. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat deze jubileumexpositie in Parijs, naast de klassieke Europese

outsiders, ook veel Amerikaanse kunstenaars presenteert. Samen met museumdirecteur Martine Lusardy, selecteerde John Maizels zo’n vierhonderd werken van tachtig kunstenaars die in de 79 verschenen tijdschriften aan bod kwamen. Naast bruiklenen uit Europa en de Verenigde Staten zijn werken geleend uit Afrika, India en Japan. Frits Gronert toog naar Parijs en doet verslag. p

hallesaintpierre.org

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Willem van Genk Trolleybus (Ratelband Haphoek), ca. 1985-1990 Gemengde techniek, 30 x 53.5 x 10.5 cm Collectie De Stadshof

Museum Halle Saint Pierre is gevestigd in een markthal uit de negentiende eeuw, in Montmartre, direct onder aan de trappen van de Sacré Cœur.

Het is mijn favoriete museum omdat het al sinds de opening in 1995 een reeks spannende tentoonstellingen op het gebied van de Outsider Art organiseert. Bovendien is de goed gesorteerde bookshop een bezoek waard en serveert de lunchroom, volgens mij, de beste cappuccino in Parijs. Maar deze keer kom ik speciaal voor de tentoonstelling, die zowel de boven- als de benedenverdieping in beslag neemt.

Op de begane grond is het duister en zijn de kunstwerken uitgelicht met spots. De sfeer doet wel denken aan de zalen in museum Collection de l’Art Brut in het Zwitserse Lausanne.

Hier in Parijs vind je kunstwerken van klassieke Art Brut kunstenaars als Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) en Aloïse Corbaz (1886-1964). Afkomstig uit

Sawada Shinichi Zonder titel, 2006-2007 Klei, 41 x 24 x 22 cm

het Oostenrijkse Gugging is onder andere werk te zien van Johan Korec (1937), Johan Hauser (1926-1996) en August Walla (1936-2001). De Amerikaanse klassieker Henry Darger (1892-1973) hangt naast ‘African American’ kunstenaars als Bill Traylor (1854-1947), Roy Ferdinand (19592004), Herbert Singleton (1945-2007) en Mose Tolliver (1920-2006).

Nederland wordt vertegenwoordigd door Willem Van Genk (1927-2005) met een fraaie selectie van schilderijen, collages en trolleybussen.

De meeste bruiklenen komen uit de collectie van de Stadshof. Van Parnasky Culture uit 1972, afkomstig uit de Collection de l’Art Brut, is een herkenbaar fragment afgebeeld op de affiches en de omslag van de ­tentoonstellingscatalogus.

Rocaterrania

Opeens sta ik oog in oog met de intrigerende kunst van Renaldo Kuhler (1931-2013), zoon van Duitse immigranten in Amerika. Net als Henry Darger bouwde hij in het geheim aan een eigen fantasie­ wereld, Rocaterrania, genoemd naar de Colorado Rockies waar hij als kind woonde. Kuhler werkte overdag in Amerikaanse musea als vormgever

van tentoonstellingen, maar zijn vrije tijd wijdde hij onafgebroken aan het tekenen. In het zomerkamp Rocaterrania beleven jonge ­vrouwen, met namen als Anita, Synthia, Lena en Janet, allerlei avonturen. Ze sporten, vangen slangen en dragen s­pannende, strakke pakjes en uniformen. Uit de kleine tekeningen spreekt een verborgen, maar sterk voelbare sensualiteit. In 1996 maakte Kuhler kennis met documentairemaker Brett Ingram aan wie hij zijn tekeningen durfde te tonen. Ingrams film ‘Rocaterrania’ kwam in 2009 uit en ontsloot het intrigerende werk van Kuhler voor de buitenwereld.

Outsider uit Japan

Uit Japan zijn beelden geselecteerd van Shinichi Sawada (1983) die, zoals ik zelf heb ervaren, ook al opzien baarden tijdens de recente Biënnale in Venetië. In Parijs sta ik weer voor een vitrine, vol met zijn aanstekelijke monsters en vreemde figuren in klei. De autistische Sawada werkt twee dagen in de week als keramist in een kleine pottenbakkerij. Nog voor Venetië was hier in de Halle Saint Pierre al werk van hem te zien op de tentoonstelling ‘Art Brut Japonais’ in 2010/ 2011.

Het Dolhuys in Haarlem selecteerde later ook keramiek voor een soortgelijke tentoonstelling met kunst uit werkplaatsen voor mensen met een verstandelijke beperking in Japan. Opmerkelijk is de uitspraak die Martine Lusardy in 2010 deed in het Art Asian Pacific Magazine “… het westen is altijd op zijn hoede geweest voor kunst die ontstaan is in ateliers voor verstandelijk gehandi-

Renaldo Kuhler Summer camp girls playing soccer, 1959 Inkt en kleurpotlood op papier, 21.5 x 28 cm

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Alex Grey Adam and Eve, 1988 Olie op doek, 152 x 152 cm

Mr. Imagination Gitaar Gemengde techniek Particuliere collectie

capten. Maar door de tentoonstelling ‘Art Brut Japonais’, die voornamelijk bestaat uit werk dat gemaakt is in werkplaatsen voor verstandelijk gehandicapten in Japan, zijn we verplicht onze positie te opzichte van deze ateliers te heroverwegen….”.

Visionaire kunst

Voordat ik de eerste etage bezoek, kijk ik naar een diavoorstelling over fantasiewerelden. Daar is het i­ deale paleis dat de Franse postbode Ferdinand Cheval achter in zijn tuin bouwde, het exotisch aandoende Bruno Weber Park in Zwitserland, het grillige, houten Junkerhaus in Duitsland en daar zijn de kronkelende objecten in de jungleachtige sfeer van Las Pozas in Mexico. Al die wonderlijke bouwsels blijven fascineren.

Vanuit de hal leidt een trap naar de eerste etage. Daar staan beelden van Nek Chand (1924) uit India. John Maizels ondersteunt het werk van de Nek Chand Foundation, waar dit jaar overigens voor het eerst ook een Nederlandse vrijwilliger een bijdrage levert aan het behoud van de enorme Rock Garden in Chandigarh, een must voor liefhebbers van Outsider Art en het levenswerk van de inmiddels bejaarde Nek Chand.

Verrassend vind ik het werk van Alex Grey (1953), een visionaire kunstenaar uit Columbus (Ohio). Geobsedeerd door de dood verzamelde hij als kind al dode dieren. Na een lsd trip kreeg hij visioenen van transparante lichamen en begon hij te schilderen. Hij werkte enkele jaren in een ziekenhuis waar hij overleden mensen prepareerde voor onderzoek. De directe nabijheid van de dood had invloed op zijn schilderijen. Ze kregen een anatomische uitstraling en alle botten, aderen en organen werden zo geschilderd dat de afgebeelde figuren transparant lijken. Dit werk heeft binnen het al zo rijke arsenaal aan Outsider Art een geheel eigen beeldtaal; fris en vernieuwend.

Knutselaars en trauma’s

Hoe anders is het werk van Mr. Imagi­nation (1948-2012), de man met de duizenden kroonkurken.

Tijdens de Outsider Art Fairs in New York heb ik hem verschillende malen

ontmoet; een kleurrijke verschijning, met altijd bijzondere kleding en een wandelstaf gemaakt van kroonkurken.

Hier in Parijs is zijn troon geëxposeerd, samen met een gitaar als zelfportret.

Over obsessief knutselgehalte gesproken; Tom Duncan (1939) bouwde Coney Island na, compleet met het zogenaamde Wonder Wheel. Mensen liggen op het strand te zonnen naast een enorme walvis en boven hen hangt een luchtballon. Een andere knutselaar is André Robillard (1932).

Als kind vertoonde hij problematisch gedrag en belandde hij op achtjarige leeftijd in een instituut voor psychiatrische patiënten, waar hij ook naar school ging. Op negentienjarige leeftijd was hij zo gehospitaliseerd dat hij er bleef wonen. Hij verzamelde allerlei rommel uit vuilnisbakken om er geweren en ruimteschepen mee te bouwen.

Uit Afrika is er werk van Cheri Samba (1956) te zien, een schilder met een heldere, naïeve stijl. Hij werkt in p

Nek Chand Opstelling diverse figuren

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English section From now on, Out of Art will be publishing key articles in English, something we hope will extend our services to our readers worldwide. Although Out of Art is a Dutch magazine, we work with writers from all over the globe to inform you about contemporary Outsider Art. In general, the magazine is published in May and December, with each edition based on a specific theme. This time, for instance, we are focusing on landscape. In addition to feature items on the theme for that particular edition, the magazine also includes articles on art collectors and places to visit as well as interviews with fascinating people.

We’re delighted to welcome you to Out of Art and would appreciate any feedback you might have. Whether you are a reader, subscriber or sales representative, we hope you enjoy our magazine.

Karin Verboeket, Editor-in-chief

P. 4 - 5 Theme landscape

Landscape as a theme Text: Karin Verboeket

In art history, painting and the landscape seem inextricably linked. Together, these two words conjure up images of the paintings of the Masters of the Dutch Golden Age. A whole cavalcade of cultural heritage passes before your mind’s eye. Panoramic views, low horizons and billowing clouds, foreboding or innocent, are familiar images. While we know that many seventeenth-century artists created idealised versions of reality, it appears as if they painted what they saw. The same holds true for their fellow artists from the nineteenth century, who carried around their field easel, paints and brushes to paint ‘en plein air’. They evoked their landscapes as a moment in time, with a strong focus on a soft, often silvery light. Later, the symbolists and expressionists filled their landscapes with mysterious meanings and strong emotions. This made the landscape a metaphor for something that is very different from the visible reality that we as the viewer initially think we are seeing.

In Outsider Art We know that nature also inspired ‘outsiders’ to create grand, remarkable works. Many structures or ‘environments’ are created for a multitude of reasons: to fill the empty space, to create an ideal world, to assuage fears, or just to make everything prettier by installing extraordi-

nary structures made of waste materials or found objects. But here the landscape is not a theme in itself. Instead, it is more of a fitting stage for the creations of passionate builders. We can see the same thing happening in the often touching scenes from rural life in isolated communities in the Southern United States. Artists working in the domain of Folk Art usually only outline the landscape, by way of a fitting entourage. Here, the main focus is on the story.

Unlike their fellow artists who have become famous through art history, outsider ­artists almost never venture outside just to leisurely capture the landscape around them. That’s not how it usually works. It has been said that ‘outsiders’ are more driven by their interior world than by the world that is revealed to them visually.

This makes the landscape an interesting theme for this magazine, though perhaps not an immediately obvious one. Provided that it stirs (subconscious) inspiration, the landscape can start to function as an effective form through which the artist can share something with the o ­ utside world. This can involve a complete landscape or an element from it. What is ultimately being communicated or shared does not affect our appreciation of the landscape we are presented with.

In this magazine Among those whose work is nearer to the classical concept of the landscape as a theme in painting are the naive artists of Eastern Europe. Working in a warm palette and a simple style that feels decorative, these self-taught artists captured their rural surroundings in harmonious scenes. In Out of Art, we have paid attention to these artists before as part of the theme of ‘naive art’ (see also volume 6, edition 1, May 2011). The Frenchman Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) is a characteristic example of a painter who worked in the naive style and, as one of his main themes, evoked both the seen and the

imagined landscape. Looking closely, you can become overawed by the sense of being lost in a suffocating ­atmosphere of inch-thick foliage. His emerald jungle paintings also made quite an impression on viewers in his own lifetime. In the West, most contemporary ‘outsiders’ now live in or close to urban areas. Sometimes nature still manifests itself on the doorstep of their existence, nearby. In that case, you can go for a walk there, long rambles like the Belgian Rémy Pierlot is used to doing.

It seems that at least some of his experiences during those rambles have ended up in his horizontal, organic pastel drawings, which are full of colours and shapes.

Sometimes the artists have to travel to see and experience the landscape, far away. But of course there is always the imagination to fall back on, which turns the landscape into an almost urban nightmare, as can be seen in the work of the Dutch Livia Dencher. Or into an almost abstract depiction of a tree as the pivotal element in the landscape, as shown by Els de Ruiter, in the Netherlands. How the landscape influences artists in their visual work is often difficult to say and is different for every artist. But we hope to have shown that it certainly is an influence.

Which brings us to our first article, about an oasis in the Dutch province of Zeeland that inspires artists, both outsiders and insiders, to create differently.

P. 6 - 11 Theme landscape

Art on the ‘Bunder’ in Zeeland, the Netherlands Text: Phia Verstraete

Subscriptions: www.aboland.nl Editorial office: info@out-of-art.nl

In the Dutch province of Zeeland, at the bottom of the bend in the dyke that meanders through the ring-shaped village of ‘s-Heer Arendskerke, are the grounds of the gardening company ‘Allemekinders-Beveland groenprojecten’. They have made part of their grounds available to contemporary artists. Amidst the trees, along hidden pathways and aromatic herbs and flowers, artists leave their imprint in the extensive garden. Curious about the impact of the visual works of these artists and the secret behind this patch of land, I paid a visit to Anja Allemekinders. Perhaps she could shed some light on this.

Playing on our ‘Little Bunder’ My conversation with Anja Allemekinders soon turns to the beautiful location where she and her husband Sjaak live.

Their land borders the environmental protection areas of De Poel and De Zak van Zuid-Beveland. There are many reminders here of centuries of bitter struggle against the sea: mile upon mile of meandering dyke and remnants of pools and creeks. In May and June, it looks as if these old lands are shrouded in snow.

That’s when the abundant hawthorn and cow parsley are in full bloom, and hikers, cyclists, bird watchers and plant lovers can enjoy the natural splendour all summer long. “I feel really privileged living here,” Anja comments. They found that they could spare a small part of their grounds. “It used to be a playground for our kids. ‘We are going to play on our ‘Little Bunder’, they used to say.” In the dialect of the Dutch province of Brabant, the word ‘bunder’ is an area of one hectare.

Cathartic The Allemekinders were not always that keen on art, but this changed in 2003. Protesting against a big container ­terminal in Zeeland, the artists’ collective ‘Trechter Vijf’ asked if they could use the Bunder to present art objects. Gertjan Evenhuis, a Vlissingen-based artist, took part in the project. The art work he designed reflects his infuriation with the injustice in the twenty-first century. This is what Evenhuis wrote about it on the internet: “The image I had in my mind after a few weeks sprang from the need I felt to make something that would completely

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merge with its designed surroundings: I contacted the organisation and asked them to help me find a complete tree, roots included, and, after I had worked on it, to place it on the trapezoid mound that was already there.” The artist worked on the seventy-year-old lime tree for months, splitting it from its crown to its roots as if it had been hit by lightning. On one of the exposed surfaces he created an alphabet in high relief, and on the other surface he created its mirror image in intaglio. If the tree were to be re-joined, the two halves would make a seamless fit. Evenhuis entitled the object Andra moi, Greek for ‘the man, to me’. The work process had an extraordinary effect on him: “What followed was an incredibly harmonious process to me. Something that rarely happens. A process where everything seemed to fit. The unfolding of nature this spring had a cathartic impact on me.” The presentation of ‘Trechter Vijf’ drew in a lot of people and the location proved to be very attractive to artists and visitors alike. Soon, more artists were asking if they could use the Bunder. It also became a meeting place for poets, performers, painters, sculptors and art photographers.

A green oasis In 2006, Gerard Marinus Verkerke (1952), the instigator of art projects in the most extreme outdoor locations, erected a tent monastery on the Bunder (see also Out of Art, vol. 2, no. 2, 2007). For six months, he held an exhibition of bronze icons there from the Benedictine monastery of Chevetogne, accompanied by the appropriate music. His eternal quest for a place of sanctuary started with this monastery, which he visits regularly. Besides the tent, Verkerke made another permanent addition to the landscape of the Bunder: a bell tower he built in response to the monastery’s new tower. He also erected the Poustinia; an austere, organically furnished cabin with a wood burning stove and sacred objects (in the Eastern tradition, Poustinia refers to a ‘spiritual wasteland’). Artist Mathisse Arendsen (1948) burnt a number of his paintings on the Bunder during this exhibition ‘een Bunder Boxen’ (‘a hectare of boxes’). With this ‘fiery exposition’, he expressed the theme of ‘power and glory’, based on the 2013 edition of Open Monuments Day. To him, this act was a new beginning, freeing up his work. Mathisse and his dog will soon be making the Poustinia their temporary home. “While the beautiful landscape there will not be a representation of my work as such, I myself will be part of it for a while .”

One of the younger artists who discovered that nature was having an extraordinary effect on his visual work is Martijn

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Linzell (1977). He usually paints human figures and portraits that focus on the eyes. When Allemekinders-Bevelanden groenprojecten asked Linzell and a few other artists to create an art object for the Bunder in celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary, he took up the irresistible challenge. Exploring the theme of recycling, Linzell took a detour from his usual approach, creating a metal shape of two by two metres, against which soil was heaped to create a mound. The inside of the object, however, still bears the marks of Linzell’s unique style. Linzell about the Bunder: “For me, the Bunder is like art itself; creating and experiencing it is an emotion and a state of being. Not a blank canvass, but a green oasis in the polder that is the basis for my work there. A source of life and communion that inspired me to create an object. And where life questions and reflection have shown me the way during the process, leading to the completion of my work.

Cultivated?”

A story on the boards In May 2013, the Bunder witnessed a truly remarkable explosion of creativity. Eight artists with a mental disability, based at Gallery Atelier De Kaai in nearby Goes and at De Zandberg in Kortrijk, Belgium, worked together for a week under the supervision of Gerard Marinus Verkerke.

It was spring, but the weather could not have been any worse. The constant downpours made the ground impassable at times. But for some of the men working outdoors was a real joy. They created their own works of art using material collected from skips. The fresh air, the cacophony of bird song and the verdant oasis of early spring contributed to visual works that were quite different from what they usually make. Dripping with rain, a fully developed poem in three-dimensional form and a futuristic vehicle awaited the opening of the exhibition. Especially remarkable in this respect was the story and poem written

by Sander van Binsbergen (1993) on two old wooden boards with rusty pieces of iron. This was the first time he had written on wood instead of paper. His words seemed to refer directly to the surroundings in which they were created.

Reading table Sounding a bit wistful, Anja Allemekinders told me that after nine years the tree Evenhuis had created would have to be cut down. Crows, magpies and other birds were hollowing out the rotten trunk. The art object on the mound had become a safety hazard. Evenhuis gave permission to remove it. Anja: “We felt it was such a waste to just burn the wood.

So we carefully sawed out the letters and

if you were to glue it all back together, you would have the complete tree again, except for one piece.” They now have a ‘reading table’, standing in the light filtered by trees, with letters that are slowly turning into the colours of earth and moss. All the other organic art objects are also permanently exposed to change.

The atmosphere as a whole reminded me of the medieval ‘hortus conclusus’, the walled garden that fulfilled the fundamental need for introspection and expressed an extraordinary vision of nature. Perhaps this cosmic orientation of the landscape is also the secret of this plot of land, the Bunder?

Winter light To experience the Bunder for myself, I joined the amazing ‘winter light’ walk.

I wasn’t quite sure if I had landed in a magical fairy tale or in the Greek underworld. It was pitch black in the landscape garden. Here and there, fire baskets lit up the bare tree branches. Occasionally the moon appeared, casting a faint shadow over the landscape. Men with burning torches guided the visitors from one performance to the next. A voice in harmonic tone resonated wide and far, disturbing a crow that flew away croaking. What left the strongest impression on me was Zij van Daarbeneden; a series of staged life-size photographs by visual artist Leon van der Flier (1975), inspired by a subterranean people who ‘crept’ through his imagination. Their story, their unconditional love for each other there underground, could set an example for those who have lost their way above ground. In the light of the burning torches, the photographs at times took on a sinister atmosphere.

Culture and nature were inextricably linked. How wonderful that all this can be evoked by the cooperation of different artistic minds. It seemed as if the earth of the ‘little acre’ had opened up beneath our feet.

on our Bunder, we feel like we receive a present.”

www.eenbunderkunst.nl

P. 11 Theme landscape

The organic landscapes of Livia Dencher Text: Frits Gronert Studying the works of the Dutch Livia Dencher (1980) is like zooming in on Google Maps. The closer you get, the more details you see. Dencher paints her mountains in layers, covered by another layer of houses, like the sets on a stage.

In between are visual elements reminiscent of ancient cultures, such as pyramids and pharaohs. Animals, people and gnomes also feature in her body of works.

While these elements appear completely unrelated, it appears that upon inquiry each work has a concrete, referential title. The recent Spooklandschap (Ghost landscape), for instance, refers to the tiny faces cut out in pumpkins for Halloween that are shown at the bottom of the canvas. The drawing table at which Livia Dencher works is filled with small jars of coloured drawing ink and water.

Small brushes, dip pens and reed pens are her tools. She usually constructs her paper or canvas with a rough sketch in acrylic paint that prefigures the contours of a new landscape. She then creates another layer with coloured drawing ink or, occasionally, coloured pencil.

Next, she intuitively applies thinner and thicker lines in light and dark tones. This gives her landscapes an organic quality.

She sometimes works on a painting for months on end, creating layer upon layer to give the effect of a relief.

www.herenplaats.nl

P. 12 - 16 Lost for words A few years ago, artists moved into the old town hall across from the Bunder.

Verkerke works there on a daily basis now, along with several young artists.

After a few exhibitions on the Bunder, the gardening company, Verkerke en poet Guus Mulders set up ‘Stichting de Bunder’, a foundation that organises all manner of art-related activities every year.

Whenever artists and visitors come to the Bunder, Anja Allemekinders witnesses something remarkable happening. ‘‘I’m lost for words to describe it. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere, the art works or the sense of communion. Maybe the secret will never be uncovered. It’s true to say that over time we have become art lovers. Every time we have activities here

I am who I am; Henrik Pätzke

In the world among others Text: Richard Bennaars

In 2013 I interviewed the Swedish artist Henrik Pätzke (1973) at Gallery Heren­ plaats in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

This towering, lanky young man was setting up the exhibition ‘Room of

our Own’ there, together with fellow ­artists and mentors. He seemed visibly pleased that he could display his work in such a large space. The exhibition presented textile objects and other works by a group of outsider artists based at Inuti 2 in Stockholm. While Pätzke was giving the final touches to the exhibition, working on pieces of clothing and other textile objects of his own creation, we resumed a dialogue that started years before.

Previously in Rotterdam For this was not the first time Pätzke paid a visit to the port city of Rotterdam. His stay in 2010 was the fourth time he came there to work at the satellite studios of Atelier Herenplaats for a couple of weeks.

This was a period when he showed himself to be a gifted and passionate artist, working on series of canvases and struggling to structure them. At the time, he was working in acrylic, painting portraits and self-portraits, human figures in theatrical poses and abstract works, mainly in earth tones. In between he would be working on a pair of trousers or a shirt in the same earth tones, using needle and thread. He told me he had very wide-ranging interests, which he thought were all very worthwhile. During the presentation of his Rotterdam works, he performed a short graceful dance for a select audience in clothes of his own creation. He spoke passionately about his painted canvases, his clothes and his underlying motivation. His main theme is his position as a human being in the world among others. How he feels unique, although he also regards himself as an outsider, with his limitations as well as his talent to express himself creatively.

His portraits express this more deeply: the human figures in dramatic poses show, as it were, Henrik’s dance in the world among the others. In this way, he tries to underline his words about what motivates his art. Versatility continues to be a key feature in his oeuvre. In addition to being a skilled draftsman, painter and textile artist, recently he has avidly devoted himself to creating ceramic objects.

Here, too, everything revolves around all aspects of the human condition: human figures, portraits, masks, dance and movement, figurative or abstract. It seems as if this flow of ideas gives him boundless energy; a ‘drive’ to keep searching for ever more challenges.

“A kind of seclusion” On the night before the opening of ‘Room of our Own’, Henrik told me a bit more about himself. “I was born in Stockholm in 1973 to parents who had a tool business; I had a happy childhood. I was given the opportunity to go to progressive

schools like the Montessori school, and I often visited museums and theatres with my parents. Art was a regular feature of the programmes offered at school and I took to it like a duck to water. When I was fourteen my body was feeling really bad and I got all manner of vague complaints. This kept worsening until I was sixteen, and I went to the doctor ever more frequently. The doctor told me that my body had a very unusual and very rapid metabolism. In the spring of 1989, I got such severe headaches that I had to be hospitalised. My condition was serious; I was in a coma for three weeks and received medical attention for four months because of having contracted meningitis. A long period of recovery followed and for a long time I was unable to go to school or study. A very weird period unfolded where I was in a kind of seclusion and it seemed as if I had wound up in a vacuum. Like many young people at that age, I was dabbling at poetry and drawing. When I was about eighteen, I returned to what is known as the ‘Volks Hochschule’ and then, from the age of nineteen until I was twenty-one, I continued my education at the Gymnasium. At the time, I had to be (and even now I still have to be) very attentive to my body, which needs extra care. To this day, I have to eat several times a day.

And cognitively I don’t function like I used to, due to the meningitis I contracted.

Nonetheless, based on my talent I was admitted to an art school on the east coast of Sweden. Even though I completed the programme there, I kept worrying about my future because of my physical and mental limitations.”

Non-conformism As it became clear that living without the help of mentors would no longer be possible, and Henrik had such an explosive drive to achieve further artistic development, on the advice of an acquaintance he joined the Inuti studios in 2002. Refusing to conform to any rules in the creative process and given that his interests are so broad, he has since dedicated all his time to creative processes at the studio. His height of six foot nine (2.10 metres) makes it difficult to buy affordable and interesting clothes. So he decided to apply himself to the design and creation of his own clothing. His non-conformist attitude extends to many areas. Soon, he also started to immerse himself in dance and movement, taking human behaviour as his subject. “In any case,” he told me, “that is my starting point”. He presents his dance and movement as in a free performance as part of a total theatre featuring his own objects. The present, the now, largely determines Henrik’s movements during his performances and how he

throws himself at his art. Although his starting point will be an idea or a theme that inspired him, he fully trusts that his creative intuition in that moment will allow him to create and present an artistic expression.

Taking the initiative For Henrik, art is like the buoy he sets his sights on to keep his head above water in a life in which he has had so many setbacks at such a young age. But he tries to take some distance from, to rise above, all those tough and difficult experiences through his artistic expressions.

The fact that he can work at the Inuti studios feels like a victory to Henrik. He plunges into the adventures and contacts this organisation has to offer. Because he is able to work very independently, placing him in a unique position at the studios, Henrik also visits the galleries where we wants to exhibit. During one period, for example, he made ceramic masks and paintings that evoked an African atmosphere, mainly because of their earth tones and subjects. Thanks to his own initiative, he managed to get a solo exhibition at ‘Burkina Faso’, a Stockholm gallery specialised in African objects.

Another of his initiatives resulted in an exhibition at the ‘Dance house’, a theatre venue in Stockholm where he exhibited human figures in textile and acrylic.

Henrik is developing an interesting oeuvre using different techniques and materials ­- from drawings in charcoal, paintings in acrylic, ceramic masks, textile objects, clothing and mosaics to objects made of PUR foam. At the moment, he feels that this versatility, in which the main theme is the human body in poses and expressions, offers him enough of a challenge.

Adventure However, Henrik has recently lost some of the freedom he used to have in his work at the Inuti studios. He used to be able to use the space independently, including in the evenings and on weekends. But sadly that is no longer allowed due to new policies. He can no longer start working whenever he wants. He used to have his own key, but under new guidelines, probably introduced for security reasons, now he can only stay there during the strictly enforced opening hours. Despite such rules and systems that can inhibit the creative freedom of people like Henrik, he remains optimistic about the future. He told me that in his mind he is already working on his next project: creating masks in papier-mâché.

This is partly a throwback to his earlier work, but also a way to get to grips with what is for him a relatively new material.

He could not reveal any details yet; the

adventure he is embarking on will reveal to him, and to us, what the final product will look like. And that will also largely depend on how he feels at the time and what he meets along the way.

Richard Bennaars works at Galerie Atelier Herenplaats, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

www.inuti.se

P. 17 - 21 Theme landscape

Henri Rousseau: landscapes and jungle paintings Text: Cynthia Thumm

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), ‘father of naive art’, ‘trailblazer of m ­ odernism’, ‘angel of Montmartre’; during his lifetime, Rousseau’s tenacious personality produced an endless stream of specu­ lation. His work has nevertheless earned him an uncontested place in the pantheon of modern art. His paintings were collected by many important artists, including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), and appreciated by art historians like Wilhelm Uhde and famous art collectors such as Gertrude Stein.

Branches and leaves Rousseau, a humble customs official from Paris, had a great passion for nature, as evidenced in even his earliest paintings. Take the two still lifes with flowers, Bouquet de roses and Bouquet de penséas, painted in 1881 and 1882; looking at those full roses and closely bunched pansies in a simple glass cup and humble vase, you experience a sense of ‘tranquil nobility’. Rousseau painted only a few still lifes, however; his early works (from around 1875-85) are much more focused on landscapes. The little toll houses where Rousseau worked as a ‘gabelou’ (toll collector) stood outside the city, along the main thoroughfares.

Here, where the city met the countryside, the city dweller Rousseau got to know the rural areas surrounding Paris, especially the peaceful, far-from-spectacular landscapes along the rivers Marne and Oise.

The Oise, in particular, held a powerful attraction for Rousseau, as it had for the

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impressionists a few decades earlier. His Bord de Rivière (1886) shows some of the characteristics that typify his work as a painter; small, cube-shaped houses, tug boats, figures and striking rows of trees, with special attention devoted to the branches and leaves. Rousseau had a fascination for representing certain atmospheres. In the painting Le moulin à l’eau, for instance, the lumbering, darkgrey clouds foretell an impending thunderstorm. In La Rivière, a river landscape painting, he shows himself a sensitive observer, impressing the viewer with a humble, contemplative representation of a fragment of nature, a ‘paysage intime’, as it were. In these paintings, reality comes first for Rousseau; these landscapes are the product of an outward-looking perspective, of his actual observation and its artistic interpretation.

Here are the seeds of the Rousseau brand; large, intricately branched trees with minutely detailed, dense foliage; a sensibility for evoking nature, in every shade of green, with occasionally a bold accent of colour; and a strong sense of atmosphere.

Lush vegetation Rousseau spent much of his spare time in the idyllic parks of Paris, such as the Jardin des Plantes and the Bois de Boulogne. In Vue de Bois de Boulogne (1895-1896), Rousseau shows us a randomly chosen corner of this park. Close-set trees, applied in confident brush strokes, penetrate like walls deep into the painting. Rousseau had a masterful touch with the brush, as can be seen in the contrast between the swift, dense brush strokes of the tree cluster on the left, for example, and the meticulously detailed contours of the grasses in the foreground of the painting. Rousseau rarely left Paris and never visited the faraway tropics. Instead, he was inspired by the botanical gardens in the heart of Paris, such as the Jardin des Plantes, and the wild animals on view, alive or stuffed and mounted, in the zoos of the metropolis. At the World Fairs in Paris in 1889 and 1990, there were also exhibits on primitive cultures that were tremendously popular. This was how most of the spectacular landscapes Rousseau painted between 1904 and 1910 came about.

A year before his death, Rousseau painted Forêt Vierge (1909-10), a ­highly imaginative jungle motif with lush vegetation, dark tree trunks branching out horizontally, grasses, and brightly coloured flowers here and there. This painting used to be in the possession of Vincent Kramar, an important Czech art collector whose collection was confiscated by the Czechoslovakian state in 1948. Miraculously, the painting

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survived in the possession of Kramer’s descendants, after being wrapped up and stored upright in a bookcase. Having been relegated to oblivion for so long, this work now has a well-deserved spot in a gallery at the Charlotte Zander Museum.

Le Charme (1909), depicting a graceful female nude amidst dense jungle vegetation, is also a work from Rousseau’s final creative period. The scene is bathed in a mysterious bluish moonlight. Rousseau modelled this painting after some other work, probably Artemis by Joseph Wencker (1848-1919). This painter, a native of Alsace, lived in Montmartre and was a well-respected ornamental painter. The Charlotte Zander Museum acquired a similar Artemis from an unknown French painter. Either of these works could have inspired Rousseau’s nude portrait.

in Germany and is considered an expert on naive and Outsider art. She dedicates this article to Charlotte Zander.

Admiration and observation Throughout Rousseau’s paintings, traces can be found of his studies of works by the popular 19th-century painters known as ‘salon’ or ‘Orientalist’ painters, such as Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and Félix-Auguste Clement (1826-1888). This dates back to 1884, when Rousseau got his copyist’s card, allowing him to make studies of works in museums in Paris, including in the Musée du Luxembourg, the Louvre and the palaces of Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Rousseau was well-acquainted with the academic art of his age. He had great admiration for it and tried to emulate it.

What came out in his work, however, was not the classical art of the 19th century but a uniquely individual, authentic imagery that propelled him to the very heart of the Parisian avant-garde, where he joined the set centred on Robert Delaunay, Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) and Wilhelm Uhde. The avant-garde strove to liberate themselves from the strict rules of academic art. They wanted to discover the secret of a subjective sensibility to life and the authenticity of creative existence, and live accordingly. They discovered that potential in Rousseau, whose art was the culmination of the most diverse artistic currents of his era, from academic art and 19th-century popular culture to the art of the avant-garde. Rousseau became an ‘artists’ artist’, inspiring the principal artists of the early 20th century. His landscapes, in particular, reveal the journey Rousseau made: from the classical, sentimental and naive landscape painter to the individual, creative spirit who gave birth to the jungle paintings with their artistic approach.

These works are artistic milestones that continue to have a tremendous attraction to this day.

Charlotte Zander

Art historian Cynthia Thumm manages the collection of the Charlotte Zander Museum

Literature consulted by the author: Charlotte Zander (compilation), Eva Karcher (text), Die Maler des Heiligen Herzens, Bönnigheim, 1996.

Götz Adriani, Henri Rousseau: Grenzgänger zur Moderne, Kunsthalle Tübingen, 3 February - 17 June 2001.

Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, Tate Modern, London, 3 November 2005 5 February 2006.

www.sammlung-zander.de

P. 21 In memoriam Text: Karin Verboeket In 2005 I attended the symposium ‘Rauw, Raw, Brut’ at the Dr. Guislain Museum in Ghent, Belgium. The usual cast of renowned speakers was trotted out; mostly specialists with extensive know­ledge of the subject matter, who speak all over the world, though not necessarily all with the same aplomb. In two days’ time, attendees were treated to no fewer than twenty ­lectures… and, well, under such circumstances, one could be forgiven for nodding off every now and then.

Until... a sudden thrill went through the auditorium as Charlotte Zander, an amazingly resilient and, above all, elegant woman appeared on stage. Armed with an effortless authority and rich vocabulary, she talked simply about what it was that appealed to her in some of the artworks from her collection on view.

She pointed out salient details, all the while effusing such genuine enthusiasm that we all suddenly realised why we had registered for this symposium in the first place. We were obviously all interested in this art form, but Ms Zander’s on-the-mark treatise reminded us why it spoke to us so strongly. Here was a collector through and through, someone who simply collected what she loved.

‘What a breath of fresh air she is,’ I thought, and shortly after that I came up with the idea of interviewing her for Out of Art. That was in 2008. First we set off for the Charlotte Zander Museum in Bönnigheim, Germany, and the next day we drove to Munich to meet Ms Zander at her house. She was extremely welcoming and open, sharing with us her enormous knowledge about, and passion for, the art of the outsiders. After talking to her, it became abundantly clear

what had motivated this lady to compile the largest private collection in this field.

Even against the current, she collected about 4,500 works of art over sixty years.

That initial contact with the Charlotte Zander Museum remains to this day.

And thus it was that we, too, immediately received the sad news that Frau Zander passed away on 12 March 2014 in Munich. Beyond the grief this will cause her family and friends, her loss will be felt far and wide in the world of Outsider Art. Charlotte Zander was considered and will always be considered a passionate spokesperson for this important art movement. To get a true idea of what that means, I highly recommend that everyone start by visiting the museum that has been named after her since 1996.

P. 22 - 27 Endless desire; Ronald and Joyce de Ruuk

A shared passion Text: Eva von Stockhausen

Ronald de Ruuk, a former partner with the law firm of Stibbe Advocaten, and his wife Joyce live in Amsterdam, in a beautiful home filled with paintings, drawings and ethnographic and glass objects. Eva von Stockhausen talked to them about their passion for art, about how artistic preferences develop over time, about what makes Willem van Genk’s work so fascinating, and about the answer to the question of why they, despite their substantial collection, do not consider themselves collectors.

A house in Amsterdam For the interview, that takes place at night, I visit Ronald and Joyce de Ruuk in their Amsterdam home. Their apartment is in a building that towers above the Amsterdam skyline, with spectacular views of the city’s thousand lights and, far in the distance, those of Utrecht. With a wall full of ceremonial objects from Oceania and Africa to my right, I immediately notice that the presence of the many art objects appears to contribute intrinsically to the home’s substance (it is much more than just embellishment).

That notion turns out to be correct. The couple purchased the apartment at the

time as an empty shell and were able to make any modifications they wanted in terms of space and light. So there are specially developed recesses in the walls for magnificently lit ethnographic objects; the wall with ethnographic objects was specially designed to display them; and there is ample space throughout the apartment to do justice to the various paintings by outsider and mainstream artists alike. The home’s design clearly reflects a longstanding passion. Ronald and Joyce de Ruuk’s interest in Outsider Art started over 40 years ago, in the early 1970s, when they bought their first piece of naive art. “Our interest in naive art started in the Glass House in the Amstelpark, here in Amsterdam, around 1974,” says Joyce de Ruuk. “They held a small exhibition of a fairly unknown naive artist, I’ve forgotten her name. I do ­remember, though, that it was quite primitive, ­nowadays we would consider it crude. Then we discovered the Hamer Gallery, which had already made a bit of a name for itself in the field of naive art.

Our first purchase was a painting by Marit L’Herminez (1925-2010), whose work is characterised by a fairly obsessive symmetry. What intrigued us, in addition to what you could see, was what had been left out.” Ronald de Ruuk adds, “We liked that then, that strict symmetry. We don’t anymore.”

Fascinating and abundant While their collection may have started with the acquisition of naive art, over time the emphasis in the part of the collection devoted to non-mainstream art seems to have shifted to other types of work and artists. Was this a deliberate choice?

Joyce: “In the years that followed, we noticed how our taste developed by seeing other, new art. Over time, our focus has indeed shifted a bit from naive art to Art Brut and Outsider Art. At the same time, we developed an interest in ethnographic and glass objects.”

Ronald: “What draws us to Outsider Art? Bahnhof Ost by Willem van Genk (1927-2005), for example, is an extremely fascinating and abundant painting.

There is so much to it; it sucks you in, as it were. You can see how the surface is completely filled, all the way up to the sky. It’s a very busy painting, teeming with people and objects. And then there is that blue streak of light at the end; without that element, I probably wouldn’t find the painting nearly as interesting. You just can’t stop looking at it. I recently discovered that it says ‘The Hague-Warsaw’ somewhere, as if that has ever been a line! And here it says ‘Haarlem’ and ‘Moscow-Paris: sleeper’. This was Willem van Genk’s reality. What surprises me is that part of the painting hasn’t been

v­ arnished, and the rest has. And then there’s the back of the painting, with its various drawings and scribbles.” Joyce: “Along with the ‘crocodile’ (a wooden prow from an Oceanic proa shaped like an enormous alligator head, which is on the floor elsewhere in the room), this is the work that fascinates our grandchildren most. From the moment they could walk, they would specifically come and look at this painting. They make up all kinds of stories about both the crocodile and this painting.”

Leningrad Ronald: “As a matter of fact, we bought Willem van Genk’s Leningrad first. There’s a nice anecdote about the purchase of this painting. In 1985, we were at an ­exhibition in the Hamer Gallery, by a completely different kind of artist, mind you. We went to take a look in the basement of the gallery. And Leningrad was down there, too, because it had just returned from being in a group exhibition at Arti et Amicitiae, where well-known ­artists presented the works of others, people they admired. Leningrad had been selected by Gorki Bollar (1944), and the Hamer Gallery was storing it for a while after the exhibition. Anyway, here I am, in the basement, and suddenly I see a tiny little piece of the right-hand side of the painting, a cityscape of Nevskii Prospekt in Leningrad, although the building on the right looked more like a Chinese pagoda to me at first.

And it was precisely that part that was sticking out from behind a row of other works. It immediately fascinated me and I pulled out the painting. Then Nico van der Endt said, ‘I’m sorry, but Willem van Genk doesn’t really want to sell anything anymore.’” In the mid-1980s, Willem van Genk no longer wanted to sell any works to private parties because, as he expressed it, they would only “be warehoused anyway”, by which he meant that the work would disappear from public view or be sold on for lots of money.

And that, he felt, would not benefit him.”

(Although this outsider never really had any interest in money, that was not the point. It was all about control (or the loss of it). Ronald: “So, we had to plead with Van Genk. At some point, I said, ‘The work will be on display in my office, which is visited by a lot of people. It’s a semi-public place. How do you feel about that?’

And then he finally agreed. I promised him that he was welcome to come see his work anytime and that I would make it available for exhibitions if necessary.

In 1998, for example, it was part of the travelling exhibition ‘Willem van Genk: a marked man and his world’. It was gone for almost a year, but that is how I was allowed to buy Leningrad by Willem van

Genk. Bahnhof Ost we purchased later, but that was already on the market at the time.”

From Stipo Pranyko to Hans Scholze In addition to the two paintings by Willem van Genk, the apartment is also home to works by such outsider artists as Nikifor (1895-1968), Chris Hipkiss (1964), George Widener (1962) and Hans Scholze (1933-1993). The art collection also comprises works by naive artists, among whom Sal Meijer (1877-1965), Sipke Houtman (1871-1945), Alexandrine Kelder-Gortmans (1903-1980) and Elisabeth Gevaert (1935). There is also mainstream art, for instance by Corneille (1922-2010) and the relatively unknown Bosnian artist Stipo Pranyko (1930), whom the couple met on Lanzarote, where he lives and works. Moved by his pure, m ­ inimalist visual language, they bought several of his works. Ronald: “When you start collecting art, including Outsider Art, it’s all about the work itself.

Later, you become interested in the artist’s background, in the person behind the work. Whether or not we acquire a work also depends on whether we both agree. If we don’t appreciate it to the same degree, we don’t buy it. We ask each other: ‘Wasn’t that beautiful?’ And in the end we always agree, also on the question of where to put a certain work of art.” Joyce: “It’s nice to see that there are works hanging or standing alongside each other that you’d never have thought would go together. That comes as a surprise every time.” This well-thought-out approach has resulted in a widely diverse and enduring collection. Most acquisitions are there to stay, which may be connected to the effort the couple expended acquiring them.

Joyce: “There was one time that we sold a work, and once we traded in a ceramic object by Pablo Rueda Lara (1945-1993) for another of his works. Sometimes we ask ourselves, ‘Shouldn’t we sell some of this stuff?’ It looks much better if it’s not so piled on top of one another. But we realise we have this weakness where when we like a painting by a certain ­artist, we’re also interested in other works by that person. That’s why, for instance, we have four works by the Dutch artist Hans Scholze.” Ronald: “After having acquired our first work by him, we were quite interested in buying more. But nothing else came onto the market. There was the exhibition ‘Structuren’ (Structures) at VU University Amsterdam at one point, which included works by Scholze.” Joyce: “There were so many works there, but no visitors whatsoever. That was really sad.”

Ronald: “The story continues, though. One evening, we had a lawyer friend over for dinner at our house. He looked around

the place a bit and, out of the blue, asked us whether we had any works by Hans Scholze. It turned out he was friends with Scholze’s sister (the artist himself had passed away a long time before). He promised to make some inquiries with this lady. ‘Perhaps you can pay her a visit sometime?’ ‘Of course, we would love to!’

So, we visited her. His sister put literally everything out on display for us, and we picked out three works. Afterwards, when we’d hung the works here, she paid us a return visit. When she saw the ‘Dayak door’ (an ethnographic object from Indonesia) on the other side of the hallway, she said ‘My brother would have been very pleased to see his works hanging next to this door.’ For, like myself, Hans Scholze came from the Dutch East Indies.”

Future Ronald: “I don’t call myself a collector, just someone who cares a lot for art.” Joyce: “Collector’ means you have a certain objective in mind, a logical plan, and we don’t. Our collection is fragmented, just like our taste is fragmented.” Ronald: “But as far as the future is concerned, I think the collection will be sold, but I’m not sure it will be sold to a single museum.

Our works are very diverse; the only thing missing is graphic art, for those are not unique items. Besides, you have to place some limitations on yourself. It has to end somewhere, because at some point, there’s no more room.”

Our thanks go to Galerie Hamer, Amsterdam.

P. 28 - 33 Theme landscape

Rémy Pierlot, landscape artist Text: Patrick Perin

It goes without saying that every artist has an intimate relationship with his work and that the themes in that work are dear to him. Rémy Pierlot (1945) is a schoolbook example of this. Over the past ten years, he has created widely divergent artworks, from linocuts and woodcuts to drawings, monoprints and paintings. Conceivably, the use of such a variety of techniques and materials

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could lead to a lack of coherence or of a consistent direction in his work. But, at second glance, there is one element that is more or less prominent and consistently present as a theme: the landscape.

video and provides a dreamlike image of this ‘landscape man’, whose body seems pierced by the space around him.

Because of the mirrors, he himself reflects the landscape, inviting us to study his view of the world.

Wanderings This is, of course, not a new theme. It has been part of art history since the days of cave paintings, when the landscape itself was the medium for the work, sometimes even shaping it. Landscapes continued to play a central role in every historical period, from the Renaissance sfumato and the romantic vision of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1844) to land art. If Rémy Pierlot’s approach is not purely instinctive, it is at least closely connected to his own life. To some extent, you could say that the way the artist depicts a landscape summarises his own experiences. For a better understanding of his work, it is essential to know that Rémy Pierlot loves the landscape, especially the countryside. And this bond is no coincidence, since he has lived in the country since he was a child. Rémy Pierlot comes from the Belgian Ardennes, where forests, fields and rivers take up most of the space. It is hardly surprising, then, that this environment constitutes an essential theme in his work. Moreover, in his free time, he loves to discover the world by foot during weekly hikes.

This way of life simply but clearly created the need to express the things he sees in his creations. In a sense, this work is a visual extension of the artist’s life. The landscape concept can be found in a series of key works Pierlot created in recent years. And it is only logical that most of his sculptures are made of wood.

Woodworking takes him back to the tree as a landmark, the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the distinctive smell of his wanderings. It is also a way of honouring the nature that fills his field of vision.

A limitless palette For the past two years, Rémy Pierlot has focused on creating a new version of the story of Don Quixote. In view of the above, it is not difficult to imagine that this story and the character of Don Quixote, who roams the landscape on his poetic quest, caught his fancy. In this painstaking work, Pierlot has produced a series of monoprints that powerfully represent the landscapes and the skies.

They display a mastery of the subject matter that enables the artist to create a variety of atmospheres using shades of grey and black. Here we see a thundery sky, there a sun-drenched plain or even a rocky coast beaten by waves.

These varying approaches, which offer the artist an opportunity to explore his rich imagination and develop broad technical knowledge, are no less incomplete for their limited palette. For all of these creations lack one thing: colour.

No doubt to fill this gap, Rémy Pierlot recently started on a series of coloured works. Most of them are panoramic.

How better to capture the grandness of nature? The subjects depicted, selected from images off the internet, again come from the maker’s immediate vicinity. Trees and woods occupy a key place, but the artist has widened his horizon to include spectacular foreign landscapes, such as the coasts of Brittany and Ireland and the Swiss mountains. In general, these works are built up in three stages. The first is a pencil sketch, in which the artist places the elements of his composition.

This is the decisive stage, since it is the moment at which he chooses what to depict. Seemingly without having to think about it, Rémy Pierlot makes choices in depicting the original image, retaining only the most essential elements. Then comes the second stage, the one where colour is applied to the canvas. This, too, is an important stage; this is when each work acquires its specific atmosphere through the application of overlapping layers of oil pastel diluted with solvent.

This technique offers an endless palette of subtle and balanced colours. The only thing missing at this stage are depth and the kind of accents needed to make it powerful. These are applied in the third step of the process: the monoprint. Pierlot is a complete master of this technique and uses it here in an extraordinary manner. He applies height in the black lines or texture to create greater contrasts. This lengthy process produces landscapes

The landscape reflected When Rémy Pierlot was asked in 2007 to create a story for a project involving comic strips, together with Vincent Fortemps (1967), nature once again formed the basic setting. Even the title, “Titi des arbres”, is indicative of this fondness of nature. That theme is further reflected in the work “Nos terres sombres”, which he made together with Paz Boïra (1972).

The narration immerses the author and his assistant in a poetic reverie, with nature as the leitmotiv. It certainly was no mistake, then, when the artist Messieurs Delmotte (1967) suggested in 2007 that Pierlot walk around in a landscape with a series of mirrors attached to his clothes.

This performance was captured on

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with a special atmosphere. The landscapes are soft yet powerful, tranquil yet lively. The long creative process behind this balanced work is clearly evident on the canvas.

The landscapes Pierlot makes these days are no doubt but a phase in the major evolution he is going through as a result of his experiences, encounters and technical discoveries, year after year. This theme will probably continue to capture the maker’s imagination, but he may well use other forms and media over time, creating work worth following throughout the seasons.

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Painter and art historian Patrick Perin has been working at studio La ‘S’ Grand Atelier since 2004, where he mentors artists in their creative process by trying to discover their talents and develop these in a permanent dialogue with the artists.

Artist Sylvain Cosijns (Hundelgem, 1932) has been working in VZW De Bolster’s drawing and painting studio in the Belgian village of Zwalm since 1987.

The MADmusée in Liège organised a retrospective of his work from 30 November 2013 until 22 February 2014, which was accompanied by an artist’s monograph. This was the sixth publication in a series that was started in 2004 with a view to create more publicity for artists whose works are represented in the MADmusée’s collection.

Information about La ‘S’ Grand Atelier Located in the middle of the Belgian Ardennes, La ‘S’ Grand Atelier offers various creative workshops (visual and performance art) for developmentally disabled artists. These workshops are organised by a team of professionals from the art world, who distribute the works in various cultural and artistic milieus. Through its artistic projects, La ‘S’ also serves as a laboratory for interactions and various experiments between ‘outsiders’ and other contemporary artists.

It cultivates a new understanding of art within the domain of Outsider Art with regard to the methods of contemporary artists. Rather than restricting the artistic methods to the reassuring framework of pre-defined categories in which they are isolated (on the pretext of protecting them from contact with contemporary art), La ‘S’ wants to encourage encounters; encounters that are aimed first and foremost at acknowledging the artistic talents of the artists, rather than focusing on their handi­ caps (even though these handicaps are often the source of striking particularities).

www.lasgrandatelier.be

Recent Publication

Monograph of Sylvain Cosijns Text: Eva von Stockhausen

Reproductions and text The monograph comprises both rich ­reproductions of 52 of Cosijns’ works and elucidating text. Since all of the works are untitled and undated, it is difficult to determine a chronology. This does not, however, detract from the power of the retrospective: this is a rich body of work, in which the ­vulnerability and forcefulness of the lines and use of colour are prominent. Some drawings are elaborate and detailed, ­others appear to be mere sketches.

Expert commentary The catalogue contains French, English and Dutch commentary from a number of leading lights from the mainstream and Outsider Art scenes. This part of the publication is a purely Belgian affair, with the exception of Thomas Röske (1962), director of the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg. In his contribution, entitled “The open gaze of faceless figures”, Röske discusses the apparent contrast in Cosijns’ work between the heads and the bodies of the figures he depicts, between seeming emptiness and detail.

Pierre Muylle (1974), director of MADmusée, the institute behind this publication, enjoys Egyptian hieroglyphics more when they are devoid of their significance, their “codes”.

He feels the same sense of wonder for Sylvain Cosijns’ work. He writes: “Sylvain Cosijns is a sphinx who creates images.

We do not need them to be translated or solved. The audience interprets them”.

Renowned art expert Jan Hoet (19362014) writes that he has been following

Sylvain Cosijns for a number of years and, as such, has observed the “evolution from more kinetic to entirely tranquil figures”. Hoet thinks that “if we are talking about artistic quality, not all of Cosijns’ works are equally successful,” but adds, “and that is absolutely to his advantage”.

He then goes on to explain how he has come to this remarkable conclusion.

Painter Philippe Vandenberg (19522009) had a special relationship with Cosijns. He wrote him a letter in 1999, on the occasion of their joint exhibition “The Messenger” in Galerie Croxhapox in Ghent. It is a beautiful letter, in which Vandenberg relates how he tries to communicate with Cosijns without language and how every artist should leave “the populated river bank” to find “the painting” on the opposite bank. He continues, “And you, Sylvain, you left once… . A long, long time ago. And you never came back: you stayed there”.

What it looks like there, in that creative world, in day-to-day practice, is described

by Jan Geldhof (1968), Sylvain’s mentor at studio De Bolster in Zwalm. “Hesitatingly, Sylvain stands in front of the blank canvas, a stick of unpressed charcoal in his right hand”. First, he studies an art book extensively, any famous artist’s random works, as long as they contain human figures; this “provides the stimulus to draw”. When Geldhof started as mentor in 1993, he soon realised that Sylvain Cosijns’ work was different from that of the other people in the studio. “At first glance, the visual language would appear to be that of a child (age 6-8), but the expressive solution is impressive: every line is in the right place, there is no need to add or remove anything.” Sylvain Cosijns’ talent and the quality of his work have not gone unnoticed beyond the walls of the studio in Zwalm, either.

“What started as a modest exhibition at the University of Ghent developed into a nicely laid-out round of exhibitions in Belgium and beyond”, says Geldhof, with Liège as its most recent location.

Finally, this artist’s monograph contains an overview of the key exhibitions in which Sylvain Cosijns has participated, as well as a brief, selective biography of publications featuring writings on his work.

The monograph is available through the MADmusée website and the website of VZW De Bolster in Zwalm.

Year of publication: 2013 126 pages Price: 25 euro Languages: French, English, Dutch ISBN 102960066774 ISBN 139782960066777

www.vzwdebolster.be www.madmusee.be

P. 35 - 38 Theme landscape

Free underneath the trees

The impressive piles of drawings have their own storage space in the gallery. But Els has gradually moved to other subjects and developed a different style.

Text: Phia Verstraete

Els de Ruiter (1962) works at the Dutch studio De Kaai in Goes for four days a week. Over the years, she has made hundreds of drawings; carefully placed into folders, they provide a good record of her development. As early as 2006, she already had a ‘tree exhibition’ in De Kaai that was very well received. Many visitors described the structured series of tree drawings as “powerful work”.

Nearby When we met at Gallery De Kaai, I saw a shy woman, a doll clenched tightly in her arms as she walked into the studio.

That was in 1996. During that first meeting, I learned that the doll acted as an interpreter, expressing Els’ wishes. After every question, she would give her doll a probing look and give me an answer along the lines of “I do not approve of that” or “that is not allowed”. To underline this, she would sometimes mention her father, in sentences like “daddy doesn’t want that’’. The doll occupied a prominent spot on her drawing table and no one was allowed to even lift a finger in the doll’s direction. So no one did. Els has a feisty personality. She hates the phrase “you have to”; that sets off all her alarm bells and makes her angry.

In the home where Els lives, they soon noticed that her favourite activity was drawing. And that was also clear from her work at the studio, where she made many sheets of drawings that all depicted events in her family. With pen and coloured pencils she drew family members and relatives. She gave a prominent spot to her favourite uncle Jaap. “Because he is so sweet”, she said through her doll.

In her drawings, he sometimes wore a stern black suit, a white shirt, a black tie, black shoes and conspicuously large glasses. On the 50 x 60 cm sheets, uncle Jaap was often depicted standing tall and proud. Another frequent presence in her figurative drawings was her favourite dog Tippie, who died twelve years ago, because “he was put to sleep”. She has continued to have a tremendous drive to draw, along with a tremendous output.

Landscapes and animals The family members slowly receded to the background. She started to draw animals, trees and flowers as enlarged, colourful shapes. Sometimes she superimposed a firm grid of lines over her drawings, so that the drawing underneath seems to be hidden. After this phase, large fences appeared, with colourful landscapes behind them. Birds fly around freely, flowers and trees are blooming cheerfully and the sky is a clear blue interspersed with a few white puffs of clouds. Her lines are confidently and swiftly drawn. The landscapes have a powerful atmosphere, especially compared to the figures, which could almost have been taken from a child’s drawing and always stand in front of the fence. “It is much too tall to climb over”, Els said when I asked her about the visible difference. The drawing pen and coloured pencils have been replaced by wax oil crayons. Unfortunately, because this material is so waxy, her drawings sometimes get smudged with her finger prints, but that doesn’t really bother her.

Els likes having a mess around her and doesn’t want the distraction of having to work neatly. Her drawing table is testament to this. Strewn across it are stumps of crayon and countless torn-off paper crayon wrappers. She’s not that keen on cleaning. She just draws a cloth over the table; that will do just fine for her. The doll has since moved to a chair next to her, or sometimes it casually lies on the cabinet.

Els only occasionally needs her now to express what she means.

Being free under the trees Els de Ruiter’s parental home had two vegetable plots. As a child, she was allowed to play underneath the trees when her mother was off to her neighbour Jaantje for a cup of coffee. Now that she’s grown up, sometimes she thinks back wistfully to those days of free and carefree playing. “Now I only go for a walk. It’s good to catch some fresh air, but I can’t play anymore,” she says. It seems that her longing to relive this childhood experience could explain why trees take up such a prominent position in her work. The series of tree impressions clearly show that Els has abandoned the figurative realism of her earlier drawings.

Uncle Jaap, Tippie the dog and the childlike figures are conspicuously absent. Her landscapes now have abstract, colourful surfaces with enlarged details of trees that are entirely drawn from her imagination. Sometimes they dance in a vibrant

colour pallet, sometimes they stand black and still, without any green. Balancing on diagonal lines, the trees create a strange effect, looking like they could fall down at any moment. These drawings have mysterious visual elements, such as a forlorn, halved tree trunk with branches full of blossoms and peculiar rotating grey green shapes underneath one of the trees. Her only explanation for these elements is: “I love trees in winter and in summer”. So her motivation for these elements will probably never be revealed.

Another striking feature is the yellow tree, with a brown bark reminiscent of the pollard willows you see alongside waterways. A tangle of branches stands silhouetted against the light blue summer sky. The vibrant yellow of the leaves has been drawn as a single shape behind the trees. Although Els has also done this in other drawings, with this yellow tree it is particularly pronounced. In another drawing with two brown blue trees, the branches form a cut-off halfway and Els wrote down her name smack in the middle.

She no longer needs her doll as an interpreter. She is now free enough to speak for herself. Els regards the doll lying in the baby carrier as her child. “She has to listen to what I say”. Els de Ruiter has already created an immense oeuvre. The drawings with the strongly expressive trees are particularly popular with borrowers and buyers. The artist herself is not that fussed about it. She continues to work on her drawings with boundless commitment and energy. Recently, they have included fewer trees; instead, very different subjects have magically come to the fore.

www.artotheek.be

P.39 - 42 Visited and viewed

‘Raw Vision; 25 ans de l’Art Brut’ Text: Frits Gronert

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the English journal Raw Vision, the Halle Saint Pierre in Paris has organised a major anniversary exhibition.

Editor-in-chief John Maizels started the magazine in 1989 and now, a quarter of a century later, Raw Vision is a leading

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magazine in the areas of Outsider Art, Art Brut, contemporary Folk Art and Marginal Art; an appropriate generic name for all other spontaneous works of art (such as art produced by amateurs, tattoo artists, graffiti artists and street artists). Interest in these forms of art is on the rise, but was already visible for quite some time in the United States. Not surprisingly, then, Raw Vision also has offices in New York, where the editorial team has consisted of gallery owners and collectors for years.

As may be expected, this anniversary exhibition in Paris presents not only the classic European outsiders but also many American artists. Together with museum director Martine Lusardy, John Maizels has selected some four hundred works by eighty artists that were covered in the 79 issues published. Apart from loans from Europe and the United States, works have been borrowed from Africa, India and Japan. Editor Frits Gronert went to Paris and reports.

In the dark Museum Halle Saint Pierre is located in a nineteenth-century market hall, in Montmartre, at the base of the steps to the Sacré-Cœur. It’s my favourite museum, because it has been organising a series of exciting Outsider Art exhibitions since its opening in 1995. Moreover, its well-stocked bookshop is worth a visit and its tearoom serves what is in my opinion the best cappuccino in Paris. This time, however, I’ve come especially for the exhibition, which takes up both the top floor and the ground floor. The ground floor is shadowed and the works of art are spotlit. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the galleries in the museum Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Here in Paris you’ll find works of art by classic Art Brut artists such as Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930) and Aloïse Corbaz (1886-1964). Also on display are works by Johan Korec (1937), Johan Hauser (19261996) and August Walla (1936-2001) and other artists from the Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic in Vienna, Austria. The American classic Henry Darger (18921973) hangs next to African-American artists such as Bill Traylor (1854-1947), Roy Ferdinand (1959-2004), Herbert Singleton (1945-2007) and Mose Tolliver (19202006). The Netherlands is represented

by Willem van Genk (1927-2005), with an attractive selection of paintings, collages en trolley buses. Most loans come from the Stadshof Collection. The posters and catalogue for the exhibition feature a typical fragment of Parnasky Culture from 1972, from the Collection de l’Art Brut.

Rocaterrania Suddenly I’m standing in front of the intriguing art by Renaldo Kuhler (1931-

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2013), son of German immigrants in the United States. Like Henry Darger, he secretly built his own fantasy world, Rocaterrania, named after the Colorado Rockies, where he lived as a child. During the daytime, Kuhler worked as an exhibition designer in American museums, but he devoted all his spare time to drawing. At Rocaterrania summer camp, young women with names like Anita, Synthia, Lena and Janet have all kinds of adventures. They play sports, catch snakes and wear exciting, tight suits and uniforms. The small drawings exude a hidden, yet clearly perceptible sensuality.

In 1996 Kuhler met documentary maker Bret Ingram, whom he felt comfortable showing his drawings to. Ingram’s film ‘Rocaterrania’ was released in 2009, showing Kuhler’s intriguing work to the outside world.

Outsider from Japan From Japan the exhibition displays a selection of sculptures by Shinichi Sawada (1983) which, as I experienced personally, also made an impression during the recent Venice Biennale. In Paris I find myself in front of a showcase full of arresting monsters and funny clay figures. The autistic Sawada works as a ceramicist in a small pottery for two days a week. Even before Venice, works by him were already on show here at the Halle Saint Pierre at the exhibition ‘Art Brut Japonais’ in 2010/2011. Later, the Dolhuys in Haarlem, the Netherlands, also selected ceramics for a similar exhibition of art from workshops for people with mental needs in Japan. In 2010, Martine Lusardy made a remarkable statement in the Art Asian Pacific Magazine: “... the West has always been wary of art originating in studios for mentally challenged people.

But for the exhibition ‘Art Brut Japonais’, which consists mainly of work produced in workshops for people with mental needs in Japan, we are obliged to reconsider our position with regard to these studios….”.

Visionary art Before I visit the first floor, I watch a slide show about fantasy worlds. These include the ideal palace that French postman Ferdinand Cheval built at the back of his garden, the exotic-looking Bruno Weber Park in Switzerland, the fanciful, wooden Junkerhaus in Germany, and the twisting objects in the jungle-like setting of Las Pozas in Mexico. All these peculiar structures never cease to fascinate us.

I climb a staircase from the hall to the first floor, where I find sculptures by Nek Chand (1924) from India. John Maizels supports the work of the Nek Chand Foundation, to which this year a Dutch volunteer also makes a contribution for

the preservation of the gigantic Rock Garden in Chandigarh, the opus magnum of Nek Chand and a must-see for everyone keen on Outsider Art. I’m surprised by the work of Alex Grey (1953), a visionary artist from Columbus, Ohio. Obsessed by death, he collected dead animals from his early childhood on. After tripping on LSD, he had visions of transparent bodies and took up painting. For a few years, he worked in a hospital where he prepared corpses for autopsies. The immediate closeness of death impacted his paintings. They became anatomical, depicting all bones, veins and organs in such a way that the figures portrayed looked transparent. Within the already abundant repertory of Outsider Art, this work has an imagery of its own; fresh and refreshing; Tinkerers and traumatic drawings How different is the work by Mr. Imagination (1948-2012), the man with thousands of bottle caps. I met him a few times during the Outsider Art Fairs in New York; a colourful figure, always dressed in unusual clothes and carrying a walking staff made of bottle caps.

His throne was exhibited here in Paris, together with a guitar as a self-portrait.

Speaking of obsessive tinkering: Tom Duncan (1939) built his version of Coney Island, complete with the Wonder Wheel.

People are sunbathing on the beach next to an enormous whale, with a hotair balloon floating above them. Another do-it-yourselfer is André Robillard (1932).

As a child, he displayed problematic behaviour and at the age of eight was admitted to a psychiatric institution, where he also attended school. At the age of nineteen, he had become so institutionalised that he went on living there. He collected all manner of junk from rubbish bins to build rifles and spaceships. From Africa there is work on display by Cheri Samba (1956), a painter with a clear, naive style. He works in Kinshasa, Congo, as an ad painter and draws comics in which he mainly depicts the political, social, cultural and economic situation in his country. A bit out of the way in the exhibition space is a showcase with a number of simple drawings on A4-size sheets made by Howard Neal (1953), a man with the mental age of an eight-year-old. I was touched by these drawings, as the story behind them is quite moving. He is said to have killed his cousin and half-brother. He was sent to prison based on a policeman’s statement. In the American state of Mississippi murder is a capital offence, and he waited for his execution for over 26 years.

After various tests, it turned out that he really is mentally challenged and therefore not eligible for the death penalty. In his cell he made hundreds of drawings,

each of which showing how he will be executed. A truly horrific story.

A gift of God There are also works on display by Joe Coleman (1955) (see Out of Art volume 7, edition 1, 2012). Truly impressive is the canvas In the Realms of the Unreal, Henry Darger 1998, a tribute to his American colleague. You can study it for hours; there is a lot to see. It stands out particularly because there is so little visual material about what Darger was believed to have looked like. Coleman managed to capture him in a really vivid portrait. On the way to the exit we pass the sculptures by the Portuguese artist José dos Santos (1904-1906), who ­created new creatures using material found in nature. They are men and women, dressed in pieces of root wood combined with the limbs of plastic dolls.

Everything is painted in bright colours.

The male figures often have enormous penises. Dos Santos himself regarded his creations as a gift of God. A motley crew The exhibition features a motley crew of artists who all go completely their own way. What brings them together here is the fact that their work was written about in Raw Vision. It is a unique gathering of eighty divergent outsiders and their equally diverse work. The exhibition is a real feast; old names, living artists and artists who have already died are all brought together as an ode to the anniversary of Raw Vision.

The exhibition is open until 22 August 2014 and is accompanied by an extensive full-colour catalogue in French and English, complete with information about all artists exhibited. www.hallesaintpierre.org

Poëzie: Sander van Binsbergen

Stralende zon De wolken verdwijnt In het mist Regen is voor mij Zonnegloed De wind Ik zie regen Wolken en zon Regenboog Storm wind De zee is wild Stormwind Schepping De zon straalt Ik zie de maan De speeltuin Ik speel Spelen in de nacht Speeltuin Sterrenhemel Ik zie de ster Reizen in de stad Lopen in de nacht Sterrenhemel Wolken vol vreugde sterrenhemel well meet again leenlied in de oorlog vrijheid in gevoel well meet again afscheid

Sander van Binsbergen (1993) schreef het gedicht ‘Paal 2013’ naar aanleiding van het werken op de Bunder in Zeeland (zie ook p. 9 van dit nummer).

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