SAVE. OUR. SOULS

Exhibition: Save our Souls

Artists: the old masters of Kunsthandel P. de Boer
Such as:
Willem van der Vliet, Delft 1584-1642
Jacob Jordaens, Antwerpen 1593- 1678
Salomon de Bray, Amsterdam 1597-1664 Haarlem
Drawings by Vincent van Gogh, Zundert 1853-1890 Auvers-sur-Oise

Contemporary artists
Arie Schippers
Tessa Posthuma de Boer
Ton Zwerver
Curator: Jacky Simons

rsvp@kunsthandelpdeboer.com

Leonardo da Vinci believed that the human soul resides behind the eye of men.
For centuries one has looked at oneself in the mirror and has gradually seen wrinkles appear or perhaps disspear plastically, made crazy faces, and marveled at the special nature of the face.
When one looks at the recent works of Arie Schippers, one sees inspiration in the paint. The same applies tot he photography of Tessa Posthuma de Boer, and tot he performance installations of Ton Zwerver. These artists steer their own course, adverse to currents, uninhibited and pristine in their imagination.

In the Save our Souls exhibition, contemporary portraits and human interpretations enter an intervanetion with realistically painted portraits from the seventeenth century.
In the past people had themselves portrayed to impress using their status. For example, Willem van der Vliet uses a painting to show a seventeenth-century youth is clothed in the straitjacket of his upbringing, beautifully dressed in a red costume with white lace. The kid’s perfection would make the barbie doll of kids nowadays go green with jealousy. The approach to dressing up and make-up in Ton Zwerver’s performance installations is inspired by the ritual of the action: ‘how men prepares and dresses for an event’. This triggers the creation of situations related to musings, fears, and dreams of every day life.

In the large hall a study is shown of a young woman by Jacob Jordaens, which can bes een from three points of view. It is a painting in which one can also subtly perceive the movement, the moment.
While Jordaens is renowned for the accurate portrayal of situations from ordinary lifes, Arie Schippers encounters the human being waiting at a station or a petrol pump. He studies the human figure with a sculptor’s eye, in which that one special existential moment is tightly kneaded in the paint.

Now the artist can freely associate with the being, human and the concept, beauty, which even in the fashion world can be filled in by everyone personally.
In Vincent van Gogh’s work, the state of mind through poverty and rawness takes the overtone. If one looks at the drawing: ‘Worn out’ by Van Gogh (P&N de Boer Foundation), one can see an exhausted person in whom we might recognize ourselves. He drew the imperfection, the pure emtion.
Tessa Posthuma de Boer’s vulnerable beings are made to be imperfect and to show the true beauty of that imperfection. In the photographic collages, in which friction between real and unreal takes shape, her self-created persons struggle with their imperfection.
Does the artist Tessa aim to evoke compassion for humanity? Presumably.
In the Save our Souls exhibition, we see men’s search for itself, for the unspeakable, the elusive, which these artists portray in an atmospheric but certainly visible way.
Masterly!

The Save our Souls exhibition takes place in the beautiful old mansion of Kunsthandel P. de boer, and is visitable by appointment.

Extra info: All the works in this exhibition are for sale except the works of Foundation P&N de Boer.

For more information: Jacky Simons

mevrouwcat@gmail.com 06-42170468