outsider art 1: the outsider in art

perhaps i will launch a series of posts on outsider art, which frequently touches me. but the more direct reason for this post is my attraction to artists who paint some feeling of `outsiderness', frequently their own, frequently indirect - but how can one paint the feeling of being an outsider, if one does not feel this (or has not felt it) inside?

i recently finished a drawing which i started already long ago in 1993. below this drawing, i will post some really inspiring -to me unbelievably masterful- paintings by bosch, ensor, rembrandt, and van gogh - all from the low countries, coincidentally?


outsider
own work ~ 1993-2009 ~ 18 x 26 cm ~ mixed media on paper

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some perpetual inspirations that certainly influenced me for this drawing:


hieronymus bosch, christ carrying the cross

this has to be one of my all-time favourite paintings. seldom have i come across sharper depiction of la condition humaine. also, here christ is depicted as the outsider. incredible composition.

i believe the following work of james ensor to have some direct connection to bosch's painting:


james ensor, self-portrait with masks

further comment is not really necessary, i believe. but i would like to formulate a question that springs up in me: are we seeing the unmasked or the masked painter here? anyway, to me it offers also the interpretation that we are all outsider, because we are all surrounded by people wearing masks to us...with only one exception: ourself.

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then some self-portraits depicting -in my eyes- outsiderness in some way:

rembrandt, self-portrait

although this is a different self-portrait, i repeat from a previous post:

a self-portrait by rembrandt on the other hand i enjoyed for something perhaps strange; it gave me the following feeling: a man looks at me, knowing i will look at him-on-canvas when he is long gone and also knowing that he is a master far ahead of his contemporaries - not per se in skill alone, but especially in vision, in artistic feeling and experiencing reality, and therefore also in rendering reality - and knowing that i will appreciate this where most of his contemporaries lack the necessary depth of development of visual/philosophical issues.

vincent van gogh, self-portrait

one of van gogh's many self-portraits. outsiderness to me just radiates from expression, colour, brushstrokes...

entombment series inspired by rembrandt 10, 11 (end)

entombment 10 (own work, 2006, 70 x 50 cm, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)




entombment 11 (own work, 2006, 70 x 50 cm, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

above are the last two drawings in the series, no further comment on them. i hope to have brought readers some insight in how works develop over time, and how old masters inspire. now it's time for other subjects.

entombment series inspired by rembrandt 8, 9

entombment 8 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

continuing from the previous post. from here on i feel the theme has reached the level that i'm looking for. detail below:



entombment 8 (detail, own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

the next drawing really comes from the subconscious levels, i honestly have no idea how this type of drawing comes into existence, it just happens.



entombment 9 (own work, 2006, 50 x 35 cm, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

and a detail:



entombment 9 (detail, own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

entombment series inspired by rembrandt 5, 6, 7

entombment 5 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

continuing from the previous post. it is probably more prudent from the marketing perspective to not show less-than-perfect studies, but so what. i thought it might be interesting to show a bit how themes develop, and in all my themes there are a fair percentage of works that don't `work' enough on the levels in which i'm interested.

from this point on the format in the series is no longer only a4 (21 x 30 cm).



entombment 6 (own work, 2006, 45 x 35 cm, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)



entombment 7 (own work, 2006, 40 x 50 cm, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

entombment 2, 3 & 4

entombment 2 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

the second drawing. somehow things are more charged, i feel. but it's hard to analyze for me. the third and fourth drawing:



entombment 3 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)



entombment 4 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

to be honest, i considered and still consider these drawings as first steps. i seldom work consecutively on a theme fixed beforehand. somehow i had to get `into it'. for this i needed some spatiality, some light/dark, but also some real emotionality, the feeling of saying final goodbye. not an easy undertaking.

entombment series 1

entombment 1 (own work, 2006, inspired by a rembrandt drawing)

this is the first drawing i started with. no further comment.

entombment series rembrandt 2: the starting point

rembrandt van rijn, entombment (photoshop alteration)

the famous-artist-or-not question: i wrote about it earlier, in the context of quality and art. to illustrate some points regarding this question, i made the above photoshop alteration of the rembrandt drawing `entombment' (see previous post for the unaltered version) and posted it on a dutch art forum in the category `own work'. by posting it there (without text) i silently suggested it was my own drawing. for this the photoshop alteration was necessary, otherwise the age of the drawing would have given everything away immediately. i changed the colour of the ink to blue, and with some work managed to edit away the browning and spots from old age.

after posting, i received a lot of comments by fellow artists who were not so impressed with either composition, or clarity, or drawing ability. to be fair, there were two who said: not bad, it reminds me of old masters, rembrandt even.

after some time i decided to give up the deception. and most were very amused.

then, since i dislike real deception, i felt i owed it to the forum to try and create some really own work depicting entombment. because of recent passing away in my direct vicinity, i was very much reminded of this series. and i thought to give some of them a place on this blog.

so if i find time and energy we will see a series around death of beloved ones, final goodbye, grief, and comfort...

entombment series inspired by rembrandt

entombment ix (own work, 2006, 30 x 40 cm, mixed media on paper)

a drawing by rembrandt, titled entombment, provided the starting point for a modest series of drawings around the theme of death of a beloved.

i will give more details on this starting point and subsequent genesis later. first the original drawing by rembrandt:



rembrandt van rijn, entombment

man woman spirituality 7: rembrandt's jewish bride

rembrandt van rijn, the jewish bride (around 1667)



rembrandt van rijn, the jewish bride (detail)

an interesting site on rembrandt's technique: northern light studio.

science: we are apes playing with fire

rembrandt van rijn, doctor faust (detail)

another aspect of brave new world & scientific progress: it seems to me we resemble apes playing with fire. we uncover and unleash forces more powerful than ever before unleashed by mankind. but we have not grown significantly in a spiritual sense these past thousand or so years.

so we are left with serious threats to life on the planet (and therefore our own existence) such as nuclear war or nuclear terrorism or other nuclear disaster, the creation (through genetic engineering) of life forms -perhaps viral perhaps not- which can wipe out ecosystems or more, toxic waste / global pollution, global warming, to name a few.

less known but potentially just as dangerous (in my eyes): the ongoing creation of nanomachinery, and physical experiments aiming at the creation of a black hole on earth.

i've begun a sculpture series called `The World Circus Proudly Presents!!!' , probably as a way to vent my incredulity at our common human stupidity in these matters. pennysmart, pounddumb about sums it up for me. whatever brilliant scientific discovery is made, it will be swept up into the vortex of human greed, arrogance, intolerance, unwillingness to see further consequences, personal gainseeking etc.

we desperately desperately need spiritual growth. much more & much more urgently than any other growth.


The World Circus Proudly Presents!: The Terrorist Turtles with their Nuclear Balancing Act on Top of their Twin Towers!!! (own work, 2006, 150 x 90 x 90 cm, turning mobile)

quality and art: hype, fiction, pirsig & page rank

many things. many things i've been thinking, about quality. quality being half of my current life motto, the other half being love. (is there any real difference between the two? spiritual love can be seen as quality in human relations, quality can be seen as love of what is good. but what is good? what is spiritual love?)

this weekend i visited the rijksmuseum in amsterdam. took my children there to see some art treasures, only to find...that even on a personal level i cannot consistently experience let alone define quality.

the paintings that i was especially looking forward to enjoy: rembrandt's de staalmeesters and the jewish bride and the milkmaid by johannes vermeer. in de staalmeesters i was happy to find once more my admiration for the red tablecloth: a true and wonderful abstract painting hidden in a group portrait. but the jewish bride left me less thrilled than on earlier visits. and the milkmaid didn't hardly touch me at all.

rembrandt, de staalmeesters

a self-portrait by rembrandt on the other hand i enjoyed for something perhaps strange; it gave me the following feeling: a man looks at me, knowing i will look at him-on-canvas when he is long gone and also knowing that he is a master far ahead of his contemporaries - not per se in skill alone, but especially in vision, in artistic feeling and experiencing reality, and therefore also in rendering reality - and knowing that i will appreciate this where most of his contemporaries lack the necessary depth of development of visual/philosophical issues.

rembrandt, self-portrait as the apostle paul

ok, i've hardly begun touching on what i want to say, but this post is long enough, will be continued.