Artist Jaap de Vries

Jaap de Vries

About

Taken from the correspondence between Jaap de Vries and Leon Willigendael, May 2011

''(...) Also my work is exclusively about bodies. The very fact of the materials I use means that it’s more body than image. I interpret my visual motifs in bodily terms even if they are landscapes. Somehow a shadow always creeps in, wanting to turn everything into a crime scene or corpus delicti. It’s about a world dictated by dread, a fear that manipulates and traps bodies, and sweeps their mere suggestion under the carpet. Even something as simple but corporal as a bit of paint on aluminium is unacceptable in that world. Yet this is precisely what makes painting all the more attractive for me.
“Thanks to a Calvinist upbringing, I used to experience the dark side of what I’m describing (…) as being religiously driven. But now I simply regard it as being a politics of fear. The regime of representations that this kind of politics supports is morally sanctimonious: a hypocrisy that demands that anything too corporal should not be shown. And if it is shown and not covered up, then as if it’s in a garishly lit brothel and with the sole purpose of being used and lovelessly condemned. This purely concerns the images; reality is apparently much less important. Condemnation ultimately suffices; that’s all that’s required. So far as I’m concerned, this is where the betrayal of true innocence begins. It is precisely that kind of betrayal that causes darkness, mental deprivation and fear. For all kinds of reasons, that fear is also directed against the true art of painting. True attention, which can belong here, is - as we know - more feared than what you describe as “the rising tide of images”. Call it quixotic if you will, but in my opinion, the antidote to this involves a homeopathic exorcism. This generates an uncomfortable mirror. My venture could be seen as cynical or ironic, sarcastic or nihilist, and this is something that I’m painfully aware of. But the gaze defining this is also dictated by the accusing, normative gaze that I wish to ensnare. My work is not at all loveless. On the contrary. I find it fascinating that the politics of fear entails such a distorted gaze, and what’s even more fascinating is the resistance to painting that it engenders. Painting is quite simply an endeavour but, at the end of the day, it’s my stubbornly pursued, anti-political endeavour.

The shadow and the gaze that I’m describing are one and the same. Part of my venture is to chart the representations that they attach themselves to. I used to believe that the gaze and the shadow came from God but I now know that it’s our own godlessness. This godlessness is little more than a rejection of what makes us human. We know that, as an art, painting has always been part of our humanity. And that’s the way it will stay. If believing in it is a delusion, then everything we consider humane is also a delusion. I would rather exist in that lunacy than in the lunacy that denies what makes us human beings.”

Jaap de Vries
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Location: Breda, Noord Brabant, Netherlands
Website: http://www.jaapdevries.eu

Work

ANTI-POLITICS OF THE BODY

Jaap de Vries is a conviced anti-political artist.
In his works images are bodies (cut, pasted, painted, partially paint that does it's own work, etc) or show bodies, or engage classical motives that are treated like bodies.To De Vries, the way bodies are captured into and manipulated by fear is what politics (especially the politics or religion) is all about. His rejective conduct towards that was the result of a stricktly calvinist upbringing: desires that come with lust, images, corporeal joy and nudity were contributed to the dark side of humanity - not just as a part of human condition but as part of the reign of darkness. The moral of bigotry, and the basis of hypocrisy: one should not want to show or see what is doomed and cursed, or is just inconvenient. To De Vries, precisely that betrail of frank openmindedness and real innocense is the reign of darkness, and his homeopathic excorcism is filled with the desire to make images as corporeal as possible. For that reason, a certain room, space or landscape to him is always a crime scene, were commercial politics depict such environments as rustic zones of comfort. And for the same reason, in his works eroticism is always accompagnied by its double: death.

Jaap de Vries
aus den Niederlanden
*1959, lebt und arbeitet in Breda, Niederlande
Jaap de Vries schafft mit seinen Aquarellen beunruhige Szenerien, die trotzdem in den Bann ziehen. In neuen Arbeiten scheint alles unter Wasser zu sein, nur schemenhaft nimmt man Konturen wahr, die sich zu nicht klar bezeichneten Körpern verdichten. Die Formen lösen sich auf, wirken verstümmelt. Zugleich durchzieht eine morbide Schönheit die Bildwelten de Vries.
Bei genauerer Betrachtung fällt auf, dass sich seine Malereien als Statements über die Welt lesen lassen. Denn die scheinbar harmlosen Motive wie Fische, Landschaften, Akte, Frauenporträts der Kunstgeschichte oder Raumsituationen wirken wie Tatorte. De Vries bezeichnet sich selbst als überzeugten anti-politischen Künstler. Nichtsdestoweniger schreibt er in einem Kommentar zu seinen Malereien, was für ihn Politik ausmacht: nämlich die Art und Weise, wie Körper mittels Angst eingefangen und manipuliert werden. Indem er Körper aber in ihrer Verletztheit in Szene setzt, zeigt er genau diejenigen unbequemen Aspekte, die von einer bigotten Politik weggeheuchelt werden. So gesehen ist Jaap de Vries durchaus ein hochpolitischer Künstler.

Redaktion:
Dr. Stefanie Lucci
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Education

Curriculum VitaeJaap de Vries ( 15 november 1959, Renkum, NL.)School of Arts Sint Joost, Breda, 1978 1983. Department: Painting.www.jaapdevries.euPast (solo*-) exhibitions:2009OOG in OOG (EYE in EYE), Stichting KOP, Breda, NL. 2009 ONE CAN OFTEN BE THWARTED BY , Prima Alonso, London UK.2009 Signatuur, kunstenaars/ collectie 1800 - heden, Bredaas Museum, Breda, NL.2009 new work, Gallery Majke Hsstege, Den Bosch, NL.2009 Wim Izaksstipend Pictura, Dordrecht/ Tricot, Winterswijk, NL. 2009 Under the influence sale Phillips de Pury, NYC, USA. 2008 DUTCH LIGHT* , LOCUSLUX, Brussels, BE.2008 SCOPE BASEL, Saatchi Online, SW.2008 I Pity Inanimate Objects*, Planet Art, Amsterdam, NL.2008 Kapellmeister Pulls a Doozy, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK.2008 new work*, Pili Pili Art Gallery, Knokke, BE.2007 Decadence, Decay and Demimonde, the Home House, London, UK.2007 The only body of importance to us.*, 20 Hoxton Square, London, UK. Publications: 2009Benjamin Roth, Houcine Bouchiba, Jaap de Vries, Wim Izaks Stipend 2008 2009 reviews in NRC, TROUW e.o. because of the Wim Izaks Stipend2009 Kunst net zoiets als oorlog, Brabant Cultureel #3, text by Cocky van Bokhoven, NL.2009 De boekenkast van Jaap de Vries, KUNSTBEELD #5, text by Sandra Jongenelen, NL.2009 SHINE ON, Artists & Illustrators April 09, interview by William Delmont, UK.2008JAAP DE VRIES/ LOCUSLUX, catalogue Locuslux, Brussels, BE.Awards:2009 Wim Izaks Stipend 2008 (http://www.stichtingwimizaks.nl/)Other activities:2009External expert exams department painting AVANS School of Arts, Breda, NL. 2009 Artists call, led by Alex de Vries, museum de Pont, Tilburg, NL.2009 Artists call together with Benjamin Roth and Houcine Bouchiba, led by Rob Smolders, Teekengenootschap Pictura, Dordrecht, NL.Jaap de Vries, Oranjeboomstraat 1, 4814 EE, Breda, the Netherlands.www.jaapdevries.eu / jaapdevries@casema.nl phone: 0031636181349, … Read More