In 2003 I visited a second-hand store in  Apeldoorn 

It was there where I found the comb of a knitting machine.

I was at that time always looking for different tools to leave a nice structure in the paint.

You could define my work at that time as abstract expressionistic and very experimental.

The comb was constructed out of parts. I took a part and did a try-out on a abstract expressionstic painting but was not satisfied with the result in the painting.

In my next step I took a canvas and used  the complete comb by pulling it through the thick layer of paint with both my arms.

Eureka!

This was what I was looking for.

I made a few paintings in different colours and came to the conclusion that they had something interesting.

I liked the structure and the way light was broken by the structure in the colour-field.

What I did not like was that I was not able to pull the comb straight through the paint in order to obtain a calmer composition.

I needed a mechanism to keep the comb straight while pulling it through the paint.The solution was an old architect drawing table. I attached the comb to the drawing table.Finaly I was able to make a straight composition with the structure I liked

As a painter I am familiar with all the existing art in the world.

Of course I know the ZERO movement and the work of Piet Mondrian,Theo van Doesburg, Barnett Newman,Frank Stella, Mark Rothko,Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Ryman etc. etc.

None of them ever used the structure I am able to produce with the comb of a knitting machine .That is why my paintings look very different.

In my Studio in Apeldoorn I had more than 5000 visitors over the last 12 years.Nobody had ever seen a painting with the same structure in the colour-fields.They all asked me if it was allowed to touch the painting because they did not understand how it was made.

The information they got through the eyes was not enough for them.

 

A Facade of Proportions and Colour

I more and more start to see paintings as a facade of proportions and colours

If I talk about colours I also mean black and white.

 

In architecture we are very familiar with the word facade. The facade of a building is the face of a building but

we know that behind the facade infact everything hapens.

This is the same with my paintings. They look very simple but they are made by a person who knows

a lot about this world including the artworld.

I always make use of a frame with a deep body and  structure.

This makes my work a bit 3 dimensional like architecture.

I know my work has many interfaces with the ZERO movement

but I was to young to take part of that movement and I belief ZERO

is always present everywhere and in every time.

 

I know that some paintigs tell a very important story or are famous because of its story

but the paintings of Mondriaan or lets take Barnett Newman also tell a story , but you need more

information to know the story behind those paintings

But in the end they stay a facade of proportions and colour.

Minimal Composition Art

I visited many Museums in Europe and made a study of many paintings which have to do with minimal art.

In my opinion there still are possibilities to make interesting minimal art.

That is why I got interested in minimal composition art.

I am on a quest for a simple but interesting visual language in my compositions.

 

I do not like paintings in which the painter tries to intimidate the viewer how clever he is or that he wants to show the viewer how intelligent he is to come up with a very difficult composition. Most of the time I experience those paintings as overdone.

 

In my Minimal Composition Art or MCA , the minimal composition is the most important part of the painting and it refers

to nothing else but itself but its existance has to do with the way my mind sees and experience the world around us.

 

I only use squares, rectangles and lines in my compositions.

In my compositions the main colourfields very often do not touch each other or are connected by lines.

In my brain it is not necessary. I can easily accept a composition without the use of this concept.

In the universe we see stars far away from each other but we know they belong together.

Infact everything in the universe is connected to each other simple by the fact that we only know one universe

This gives me the possibilaty to make a total different composition and visual language as for example the work of Mondrian , Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko etc.

The free space in my compositions is as important as the used space.

To find the balance between the two on the canvas is very inportant for me

and I believe this is a very personal decision in my brain.

This also has to do with proportions.

I do not use only primary colours , why should I , as my work refers to nothing else but the composition itself.

I learned that colour is a very powerfull tool in a composition and painting.

 

I do not like the circle and diagonal in a minimal composition painting.

I like the circle and diagonal more or even very much in architecture and sculpture because there is more space and the use of the space is totally different as in a painting.

 

I believe that there is still enough room in the world for minimal art compositions so lets go to work.