Jan Pieter van den Bos - La Passion de Styx
About this activity.
Passion of the River Styx
Artworks as a form of brainstorming, of thought processes and focused active thinking of that which is not yet present, can be seen in De Portiersloge as a dynamic presentation of the river of forgetfulness, in search of a carefree work of art in the form of current journalistic working drawings and notes, referring to to a chronically unfinished painterly oeuvre, abstract, monumental, and sensitive, an art that belongs to reality but at the same time hides something else, dedicated to the mythical underworld that feeds all waters, the river Styx.
You can enter into a dialogue with a literary past, intertextuality. In contrast, I propose a form of intervisuality, the transformation and reinterpretation of visual art from the past. "La Passion de Styx" is inspired by the no longer existing, but described, then world-famous paintings of Polygnotos, the goddess Styx and the 92 metopes of the Athena Temple on the Acropolis of Athens. Paintings as an echo from the past, named after a hero or a god, I substitute with the Parthenon as an image. The paintings lack a direct external motif, although they do suggest a theme, such as landscape or architecture, without actually being it. The subject or source of inspiration is woven into the whole of the work without referring to it. By means of concentration and reduction, spartan, powerful and compelling forms within a slow almost static complex, dramatic quality and suggestion of depth, which can create a sense of suspense. But also lines or threads that have been taken out of context, which no longer serve any purpose, bind aimlessly, and round or blotchy, sometimes wispy shapes, seemingly carelessly thrown down like misplaced frivolities almost, menacing like icebergs in the Mediterranean. The paintings are facade-like, restrictive, opaque, concealing like bricked-up holes in a wall, the forms often affected or slightly off-balance, stripped of smooth aesthetics as much as possible. Remains remain visible, remnants of previously created images, traces, references, images of the tired beauty of a ruin, of past civilization. As a result, new promises, new insights, the promised land after the silence of forgetting, history made habitable again. For the goddess of the oaths of the gods, "La passion de Styx".
De Portiersloge.
De kleinste galerie van Groningen. U kunt de tentoonstellingen van buitenaf bekijken, elke dag, overdag en 's avonds. Het licht is aan van 11.00 - 23.00 uur.
Location.
De Portiersloge
Haddingestraat 26
tel 06-30741182
www.havikexpo.nl/index-portiers.htm