Page 44 - Studio International - May 1973

Ger Van Elk `wrong'. That this view is the only possible one, Ad Dekkers*
and explicitly constructed to be so by Van Elk,
The Return of Pierre Bonnard, is assured by the size and position of all the Shifted Squares and
1917-1971 parts; and that this image is extremely Quartering by a left-to-right
abstracted from its material source is sawn groove
Imagine rounding a corner in Amsterdam's accentuated by its thin paper mat 'frame'
Stedelijk Museum to see a room of the 'School which, with the complex corners and straight For this short description I have chosen two
of Paris' and finding — amongst the heavily drawn lines characteristic of Van Elk's reliefs from Dekkers's oeuvre*, the first of which
gilt-framed, richly coloured oils — a large `frames', articulates the flat 'two-dimensionality' deals programmatically with a mathematical
plexiglas-fronted photograph hung from the of the image. The abstraction of this image is method, and the second of which breathes and
ceiling as if hinged at an angle from a wall, a part of the clear distinction in the layers of radiates this mathematical approach more as
photograph depicting the wood-brown back of `illusion' in the piece: it is an illusion of the an atmosphere than as a method.
an Old Master's stretcher and frame with all its photograph which is an illusion of the painting The relief Shifted Squares is built up from
curatorial record of past loan exhibitions which may or may not be 'there'. squares which become progressively smaller
splashed in labels on the dusty patina Contradictorily, it is obvious that the mirror and towards the centre, and which moreover tilt in
surface of the painting's material history. photographs are physically 'real': and that their phases around a central axis, first over a total of
Is this a new type of museological real physical potential for 'high definition' 45 degrees to the right, then to the left. The
information, imaginatively installed by the representation has been used to its utmost to series is interrupted in an arbitrary way at the
education department for the greater grandeur clarify their embodiment of reality-and-illusion. centre, and is open-ended. Although the last and
of art history through backsides ? It seems that Such pungent coherence between detail and smallest square is placed negatively, and thus
the photograph is the same size as Bonnard's general 'meaning' and physical 'form' is possesses some validity as the termination of
L'Esterel at its right : might there be an x-ray or characteristic of 'good art' and not limited to the series, its position does not accord with the
infra-red photograph on its own backside this particular piece in Van Elk's oeuvre. axis of the relief. It occupies, on the whole, a
indicating some material secret behind the Nor is the meaningful use of physical strikingly asymmetrical position, whereby the
paint surface of the Bonnard ? Peek around the installation, art history, illusion and reality, and tilting movement continues ad infinitum. (Had
edge ! You see a mirror image of that Bonnard the wit of the clearly defined ironies limited to the last square been placed positively, then the
picture against the wall: a real mirror reflecting this piece. Van Elk has used, and honoured, the series would have to be continued indefinitely,
a colour photograph of the front of L'Esterel work of artists as popular and varied as Paul which is practically impossible). As a result of
(and its frame) back-to-back with its backside. Klee, Giorgio Morandi, and Melchior the rotation, the corners of the square describe
(By now, your attempts to see this directly have d'Hondecoeter : always with an explicit curves which are not concretely given but which
pushed your head against the wall itself; but reference which heightens both the clarity and become visible, as in film, by a rapid succession
even then you can't see the 'front' photograph in the ambiguity of his relationship with them in of images. Within the geometric form-pattern
its entirety except through its reflection . ..) history, definition of image, and relative reality the illusion is thus created of two spiral
What you have just 'seen' is Ger Van Elk's of physical existence. In these works and movements, which interact in counterpoise.
The Return of Pierre Bonnard,1917-1971: a others he has juxtaposed photography (film, This illusion, this metamorphosis from angle
piece which embodies the highly developed and slide sequences, and stills of all shapes and to curve, from static succession to dynamic
integrated sensitivity to the meaningful sizes) with more tangible objects depicted in motion, could also have been realized in a
potential of phenomenological installation, that mechanically abstracting medium: drawing, i.e. on a two-dimensional plane. Why
art-historical analogy, and philosophical establishing a complex phenomenology of the complexity of a relief ? The answer is clear
problems of illusion-and-reality in the wit of conceptual realities through the direct enough. Dekkers draws his relief with light — the
this young 'conceptual' artist. In fact the physicality of his installations. And throughout light which is on the one hand determined by
Stedelijk Museum does own this piece, and his work, Van Elk uses the potential ironies of intervening obstacles, but which on the other
Bonnard's L'Esterel as well, and the two might verbal language in his titles as clearly and hand pursues its own course; the light that
well be hung happily side by side. But even if ambiguously in relation to their physical casts shadows without regard for the
they were not, Van Elk's work would be realities as they interrelate as statements in delimitation of objects, which envelops form
self-evidently his own. A close look at the themselves. But these stylistic threads in Van and rearranges or changes mass, which blends
external 'backside' photograph would show not Elk's works are just that: he has not executed and fades contours or differentiates them
only Van Elk's handwritten title and signature, long series of closely-related works (so far), but sharply. In visual art light always means more
for this as an individual entity, but also discrete entities which have the clarity and than the implicit condition under which things
(indirectly in the reproduced exhibition labels) multi-layered mystery of contextual meaning become visible, it is the explicit condition under
that the 'object-matter' of re-presentation was found in poems, philosophical aphorisms, and which a metamorphosis of form can take place.
L'Esterel by Bonnard, done in 1917 as opposed serious jokes. With regard to the action of light, the relief has a
to Van Elk's 1971 creation. The internal puns It is not surprising that Van Elk is as at home very special place in the field of visual art:
and the self-accentuating structure also give in Los Angeles (rather than New York) as in it unites the pictorial space in painting with the
this piece its individual wholeness. Even the Amsterdam, or that he was inspired by early manipulation of tangible mass in sculpture. As
title has this : its double dates refer to those of Bruce Nauman while his friend Dibbets was far as our sense of touch alone is concerned,
both artists' pieces, but their form is that more involved with the work of Richard Long Dekkers's reliefs are of a prosaic monotony.
usually defining the life-span of one artist; the and Sol LeWitt, or that he is personal Our hand feels sharp edges wherever we see
`return' alludes both to the whole friends with artists internationally whose work curves, it registers regularity and progression,
re-presentation of Bonnard as artistically vital evokes a cultural context and other artists and it can also follow the course of a curve, but it
in 1971 and to the ambiguous pictorial image of times with wit — like Allen Ruppersberg (LA), will never be able to feel the effect of light, the
the boat which, in the reflected version, seems Reiner Lucassen (Amsterdam), and Gilbert & quality around the form. And it is precisely the
to be returning to (or departing from ?) a bay George (London). What is surprising is that he fine pattern of light and shadow-lines, of gradual
and its seated observers (as well as to/from has not been more appreciated for his own contrasts, of optical unison, transition and
ourselves). And that reflected image is very qualities as an artist, by me as well as by division that constitutes the most attractive
strange : it looks like the painting of course, but others.[-1 aspect of this relief. Light is directly harnessed as
its inversion is very unsettling — it seems BARBARA REISE a form-creating force, as a force that enters into

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