It is now common knowledge that people do not linger too long in front of a work of art: on average, we look for 15 to 30 seconds. But what do we see and think when we stop for a little longer? Rik Hagt is showing his work in the exhibition Hotelkamer #30 (Hotel Room #30) at the CBK, and we sat there for a good half hour.
The choice to make a painting of the interior of hotel rooms every year is unusual, to say the least. To deliver one painting each year means that almost every year he has to book at least one trip plus hotel. So do you travel to go on holiday, or do you travel just to collect visual materials? In fact, the hotel rooms in question are all austere and sometimes look a bit sad. Is there something about this type of hotel room that fascinates him? In any case, their uniformity and austerity seem to present him with a challenge: to further develop his technical painting skills and to still make something interesting out of each painting. It seems to be mostly about the former. The first paintings were painted almost naively, with totally distorted perspective and no material expression. The latest paintings are much stricter in form and come ever closer to realism. The development is quite linear in that regard: he is getting increasingly better, especially on a technical level.
The exhibition is organised chronologically, which also ensures that the emphasis is on this development. It begins in 1991 with the first painting ‘Hotelkamer #1’ and ends with ‘Hotelkamer #30’ from 2020. You can literally follow how Hagt has evolved over the past 29 years and how the style and technique are gradually changing.
In Hagt's journey toward realism, very interesting things happen. If you look at Hotelkamer #20 and Hotelkamer #19 long enough, you almost get seasick the way the perspective goes in all directions. It is too close to reality to label it as surrealism, but the slight distortions certainly push it in that direction a bit. This wears off a bit in the most recent paintings. In this respect, his paintings are getting closer and closer to the austerity of the hotel rooms themselves: sleek and steely. With each new painting, the perspective shifts increasingly towards reality, and the paintings are executed more and more strictly.
I know that Hagt paints things other than hotel rooms as well, but the way the exhibition is presented, I could also easily imagine that someone could engage in this forever. Challenging himself repeatedly to continuously improve his painting and do something with a subject that has little to offer at first glance. This exhibition is a look at the developmental process of a painter and the influence of the artist's hand in giving meaning to a work of art. It makes me curious to see how the work and Hagt himself will develop once we reach #60.
The exhibition Hotelkamer #30 is on display at the CBK until 31 October 2020. Almost all works are also available for loan and purchase through the museum’s art loan department.