Page 30 - Studio International - May 1973

He succeeds when he reduces the complexity or turns something around, modifies an important also the concrete border and surface area of the
has such control of its elements that he can use element. Then he waits to see what will happen. painting play a role. In Benches (1971) it is still a
them directly for what he has to say. He did this What happens is a curious sense of minor role, and a secret role. Two benches, back
in Interior with Nude (1973) which, despite disorientation in the spectator in the face of a to back, are placed symmetrically and parallel
derivations and influences, is totally Freymuth. situation which seems quite familiar to him. to the picture-plane, slightly overlapping in the
Different forms of realism, expressionist For that feeling of familiarity Holstein's cliché centre. They almost fill the plane, and to the left
elements and a Mondrian turned into a realism takes on a function. And the sense of and right they are cut off by the border. The
windowsill clash as if they had been put there disorientation is for Holstein an indication that illusionist space is arranged in four layers which
by completely different artists. Yet they all in familiar-seeming forms of language and are explicitly visible in the centre, where the
contribute to the expressiveness of the whole, thinking hidden laws do indeed exist. front bench overlaps the back bench, but which
which reveals less about the crouching woman Holstein's procedure is expressionist: he partially merge on the sides. Most of the time,
in the centre than about Freymuth's own state creates new situations by destroying something however, the space is either plastic or flat.
of mind. But even in that respect the painting is in existing situations. But his first and foremost Conversely the plasticity of the two benches
not a unity which could be harmonious within means of expression is intelligence. And that would seem to enclose a space that has become
its own limits. Feelings of fear, evoked by the gives him, more so than the conceptual plastic, rather than being an independently
representation and by the triple contrast of Lucassen or the expressionist Freymuth, an plastic form. The part of the front bench which
styles in the centre, are denied — I would almost affinity with the conceptual expressionist Van should, in the illusion, be the most spatial,
say disturbed — by the gaily-coloured pattern of Elk. Holstein's feeling for space is expressionist, appears completely flat: the dark, broad rim
the screen on the left of the carpet. It is this too, and particularly his use of line. In this, the connecting the back with the front part of the
disharmony that makes the expression etching technique becomes functional. It is a
unsentimental, and hard to define in rational graphic, scratching and gouging line, which
terms. Whereas visual comprehension goes a contradicts the classical line of the children's
long way in looking at Lucassen, Freymuth's book cliché. Perhaps there is, in that
work has to be sensed. contradiction, an explanation for the purely
Pieter Holstein, who started out by following artistic riddles of his work.
the Cobra trend, went through a long and Jan Roeland did not start painting until he
difficult period before arriving at the form of was 25, and developed from a more or less
realism that has set the tone for his work since naive beginning to a realism whose very
1968. Occasionally a sophisticated painter, his characteristic is abstract. His subjects are
most effectively used medium is the etching, suitable for this : boxes, eggs, furniture,
although of all the possibilities offered by this envelopes, etc. Roeland approaches such given
technique he uses no more than an inelegant, factors in a purely visual manner. What interest
but varied line. Besides, he colours all his him most about the visible aspect of things is
etchings in after printing, so that every copy is the mysterious interaction that sometimes takes
different, and not just an etching. place between plastic form and surrounding
Holstein's realism goes back to a distinct space: a problem that has been classic since
source : the linear and cliché realism of children's Cezanne.
colouring books. Holstein makes no effort to In earlier works all constituents of the
interpret this example artistically. He uses the interaction are indicated illusionistically; later
cliche forms (or his own in the disguise of a
cliché) as a visual language for the philosophical
questions he puts to himself.
Like Lucassen, Holstein works as conceptually
as any conceptual artist; like Lucassen he
remains a very visual artist. But this is all the
more surprising in his case because his visual
idiom looks so simple grammatically and so
near to that of the cartoon. How he manages to
keep at a safe distance from this pitfall remains a
mystery; but that he does so is evident from an
etching like Chains with the earth (197o). Such a
title leads one to expect an allegorical scene in
the spirit of St Paul on the subject of the
temptations of the flesh that hamper a soul being
lifted upward. Here, a complete man flies up — or
maybe he is held down by the rope. But how far
does he want to go ? And in which direction ?
Perhaps he is a mountain climber who sorely
needs his 'chain with the earth' so as not to fall
into the ravine. All this remains uncertain — but
the mere possibility of such an interpretation of a
standard expression doesn't come so easily to a
churchgoer's mind. Holstein is concerned with
structures of comprehension, whose existence
he surmises in language and thinking.
Wherever he suspects such a structure he
changes something in its external appearance,

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