Page 42 - Studio International - May 1973

J. C. J. van der Heyden

Blue Cross and Perception

Blue Cross 1965-66 and Perception 1966, two
paintings by J. C. J. van der Heyden (born
1928), reflect two complementary themes that
recur in his work. Each one is a closed visual
object and both tell about painting in a different
way.
Blue Cross, with its subtle asymmetrical shape
that does not extend to the edge of the canvas,
shows a delicate balance between deep blue form
and white background. The background, by its
enclosing shape, gets a strong, independent
character that matches the visual force of the
cross.
At the same time there exists an obvious
tension between the forms that are represented
and the materials used. The presence of paint
and canvas is strong; form and material fight for
supremacy as with many of his paintings of this
type (e.g. squares and 'gates' on a plain
background). In his graphic work, especially his
coloured relief prints, one senses the same
tension between the preservation and
suppressing of the original shapes that were used
in constructing the print.
Perception presents an assemblage of
heterogeneous, visually equivalent images
without hierarchy; it studies ways of seeing and
representing, the meaning of visual symbols and
its change; it comments in an ironical way on the
ambiguities of forms, on the traditional sizes and
materials of painting, on the relations between
visual elements. This happens in an apparently
loose, but in reality carefully constructed way.
To van der Heyden it offers the opportunity to
introduce autobiographical elements, a tendency
that is even stronger in his prints and drawings
(e.g. a series of eight drawings together, one
from each year between 1963 and 1970, called
`0,000.000.3178 Hertz'). q
KEES BROOS

(Top left)
Page from a series of 12 relief prints
Book z and 2 1965
64 x 50 cm
The Hague Gemeentemuseum
(Bottom left)
Perception 1966
(Bottom right)
Blue Cross 1965-66
Photo: Cor van Wanrooy
(Opposite page)
Carel Visser
At Each Other 1972
Iron 120 X 135x 15 CM.
Photo: Cor van Wanrooy
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