3 November - 21 December 2024
Marian Wijnvoord, Humph, He, Ha
After (2018) - Oil on linen - 100 x 120 cm
For this first solo exhibition of works by Dutch painter Marian Wijnvoord at Berlin Brussels Art Projects, we have selected a number of oil paintings produced over the past five years. They represent landscapes, often exposed to severe weather conditions, sometimes resulting in tumultuous and dramatic vistas.
At first sight, one may be surprised, and exclaim: ‘Humph, he, ha!’, as in Julian Barnes’ lecture on Art and Words, in which he points at Edgar Degas' words: 'My art, what do you want to say about it? [...] among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say ‘humph, he ha’, and everything has been said.'
Art and words, do they connect? Barnes asked himself whether art and words are natural companions or natural antagonists.
Marian Wijnvoord is not sure what to think, what comes first and what leads to what, in this endless loop that feels a bit like the chicken and the egg. She states: 'I do know that an artist painted a landscape before anyone ever walked through one. The word entered the English language from the 16th-century Middle Dutch landscap, land+schap, referring to the painterly illusion of an area of land. None of what I paint was there before. I find my paintings along the way, while I am looking for something else. The painting appears like a word you do not know, although you know it must be there'.
At first sight, one may be surprised, and exclaim: ‘Humph, he, ha!’, as in Julian Barnes’ lecture on Art and Words, in which he points at Edgar Degas' words: 'My art, what do you want to say about it? [...] among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say ‘humph, he ha’, and everything has been said.'
Art and words, do they connect? Barnes asked himself whether art and words are natural companions or natural antagonists.
Marian Wijnvoord is not sure what to think, what comes first and what leads to what, in this endless loop that feels a bit like the chicken and the egg. She states: 'I do know that an artist painted a landscape before anyone ever walked through one. The word entered the English language from the 16th-century Middle Dutch landscap, land+schap, referring to the painterly illusion of an area of land. None of what I paint was there before. I find my paintings along the way, while I am looking for something else. The painting appears like a word you do not know, although you know it must be there'.
Ecosystem (2021) - 0il on linen - 27 x 30 cm
Landscape (2021) - Oil on linen - 24 x 30 cm
Marian Wijnvoord’s paintings come close to a certain definition of painting itself: the illusion of space created on a flat surface. Contradictions guide us through her paintings: figuration versus abstraction, the physicality of paint versus the ephemerality of the image. It is in the moments when both worlds hold that the magic of her painting operates.
Born 1966 in Westerschouwen, the Netherlands, Marian Wijnvoord studied painting at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Amsterdam. After having taught painting for several years in the United States at Alfred University, NY, she returned to Europe in 1997 – then moved from Paris to Berlin, where she now works and lives. Wijnvoord has exhibited internationally for over 30 years. Her recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki and the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, St. Petersburg. Recent artist's residencies in Russia and Norway have pulled her image-making to the North, most recently in a one-month stay above the Arctic Circle.
Creation Myths (2018) - Oil on wood - 30 x 40 cm