Page 28 - Studio International - May 1973

paintings in one year which are all so different
that they could pass as milestones in a decade
of development. In this the stylistic
complexity comes into play to which he has
been faithful since his earliest beginnings : the
combination of stylistic elements of the most
diverse and contradictory kinds, not only realist
next to figurative or abstract, but also flat next to
plastic, expressionist next to constructivist,
Mondrian next to calendar art, lollipop colours
next to sonorous ochres and browns. This
complexity links his work to Flemish realists like
Raveel and Elias, and to a Dutchman like Van de
Water (who hardly knew about Lucassen's work
until recently). It is necessarily Dutch and
European because it needs a complex artistic
tradition to stand on, not only Cobra and pop
art, but Matisse, Leger, Beckmann, Magritte,
Bonnard, Mondrian, Van Gogh and the French
expressionists.
The Portrait of A. F. (Alphonse Freymuth) as
Mike Hammer (1970-71) is a lucid example
of the multidimensionality that Lucassen wants
to see in a work of art. Belonging to a series of
variations on the portrait as a classical painterly
theme, it is also a small meditation on the
limitations of realistic painting in general as a
means of objective representation. For Lucassen
the realistic representation cannot escape the
limitations of visual perception — that most
doubtful source of human knowledge with
which, however, one must make do. Together,
the three problem areas — painting as a form of
culture, realistic painting as an attempted
visual representation, visual perception as a
source of knowledge — have determined the
greater part of Lucassen's work until now, either
separately or combined. In the Portrait of A.F.
they appear connected to each other. An
into play were from abroad : the early, abstract together — since I have such difficulty in finding introduction to these problems is given by the
work of Alfred Lesley, Richard Smith, Raveel; anything quite like it in the art of other portrait in the lower right-hand corner, which
more incidentally Jim Dine, Derek Boshier, Joe countries. according to the title is a likeness of Alphonse
Tilson, Peter Saul, the Belgian realist Etienne Dutch, and good enough to escape Freymuth as Mike Hammer. As a realistic
Elias and others. From 1966 onwards, however, provincialism, appears to me to be the work of portrait, however, it can only be based on
no foreign artist had a greater influence on the following five artists: Reinier Lucassen external data : all we see is Mike Hammer,
Dutch realism than Lucassen. (1939), Pieter Holstein (1936), Alphonse although it's actually Alphonse Freymuth we're
Of course the development could have taken a Freymuth (1940), Jan Roeland (1935), and looking at. Even the most realistic painting,
quicker course if the British and American pop Koos van de Water (1943). In no way can they then, can only be subjective; for Lucassen, the
artists had been followed immediately and be said to constitute a group with a common conventions of perception and all kinds of
directly in Holland. This was in fact done, but artistic programme. Lucassen, for instance, has circumstances we don't even know of forbid
not by the artists discussed here. There is, made works of art in cooperation with both anything more than that. Language is just as
after all, something fishy about a portrait of Dibbets and Van Elk (I find him the most useful and just as unreliable a means of
Marilyn Monroe made in Amsterdam. A realist fascinating of the three), but not with any of conveying a visible fact. In the lower left of his
who really has something to say can only base the realists. In fact each of these can only be painting he has put the word `tafel' : it
his work on his own experiences in his own described as an artistic personality in his own introduces into the painting a table whose
environment, and the environment of a Dutch right. presence is just as real or unreal as the window
realist is Holland. This includes Dutch art, in Lucassen's work is more intelligently higher up, which after all is merely an
this case the painterly expressionism of Cobra, conceptual than most conceptual art; but it interpretation of a window and not the real
and it includes the Dutch modern art museums, doesn't matter very much if his ideas are not thing. The abstract bands of colour at the top
which are relatively numerous and very active understood. He is also a painter of a visual may well be concrete, as an abstract addition to
internationally, although they show richness and ingenuity that is unparalleled in the painting. But they may just as well belong to
indiscriminately both good art and trash. I leave Dutch painting today — indeed, I find it an illusory abstract painting — e.g. of an Adolphe
it to the foreigner to judge what else may be difficult to discover such parallels abroad. No Lohse who has lost count — hanging on the wall
typically Dutch about Holland. But I consider painter in Holland brings such boldness to his with floral wallpaper, and interrupted by the
the work of a number of young Dutch realists visual means, none equals the endless variety of concrete edge or the painting. Lower down, the
as typically Dutch — or rather typical of the his visual ingenuity. Lucassen's versatility does concrete edge is at the same time an illusory
Lowlands, thereby taking Dutch and Flemish not consist only in the fact that he makes ten surface on which a saucer is placed; on that
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