My name is Kees Wattjes.I was born in 1951 in Rijswijk, a small town near the Hague, Holland.I come from a long line of artists.Writers, poets, architects, painters, and photographers we had all of them in the family.That I suppose has had its effect on me.StartingI started studying art approximately in 1968,as we know it was a very good year.1975 and onwards I consider myself a professional.Due to the fact that my Grand Father, the architect, was a close friend with some artistsfrom the Dutch movement De Stijl we had some Modern paintings and furniture when I grew up.Abstract Art 1975-1995It got me interested in De Stijl and BAUHAUS and the American answer to that between the fifties and the seventies.You know Barnett Newman, Rothko, Stella,I developed my own reaction to this, I describe it as an intercontinental cultural conversation.In the early nineties I lost interest in abstract art , because in Holland it became very commercial.Destruction and construction 1995-1999In this period a large part of the city The Hague, were I live, was boarded upHole streets from different periods, 19th as well as 20th century buildings.That attracted my attention and I went to work with that strange phenomenon.I started to photograph and paint them, I also organized excursions to this surrealistic entity.this period helped me a lot, in thinking was is identity?I mean of the artist as well as the artwork. A house or block of Flats were the living function had been terminated by bricking upthe windows and the doors, is a giant 1:1 size representation of that of that houseor in other words an artwork.The Secret Museum 1998-1999I was offered the possibility to work in a house which was to be demolished.As a matter of fact is was an old governmental office were civil servants got there medical check ups.I had 25 rooms a canteen and 2 L shaped corridors to myself.Approximately 500 metres wall it was huge, like a museum.So I called it The Secret MuseumAs an answer to all the prestiges Museums that were built all over Europe at that time.It was never open for my own use and art only.When the word came that it had to be demolished I opened it for one day only.The press covered that well, some of the clips from the Telly I put on Youtube.Lrt cst moi! And Secret Fame 1999-2005When the Secret Museum was closed I went to the UK for a short Holliday, to Brighton to be precise, I think it was February 1999.I left my camera at home , in Holland.A friend were I stayed in Brighton borrowed me his Digital NIKONIt was a revelation that you can turn the view finders towards yourself to make self-portraitsWhen I came back to Holland I had a couple of disks and no computer yet.Well that changed rather quickly.I made lots of self-portraits, a number of them in the nude.Lrt cst moi! Thats what I called them ( thank you Louis 14 )By working with the houses I am under the conviction, that the art and the artist are basically the same thing. Thats the meaning.In Secret Fame I digitally show my work in real museumsBoth ideas are a sequel to The Secret Museum.Experimenting 2005-2010I missed the direct contact with paint so I tried different waysfor a while.Painting like a child purely from instinct. ( I found my old child drawings)That changed to expressionistic flowers ( Mondrian painted flowers as well, for different reasons of course)Now I paint in a hybrid form which lies between photography, printing and paintingMaybe its like this I am a Chess player ( AS a child I was a champ)I think I use the combination of different techniques as pieces working together to achieve a winning result in a Chess match. … Read More