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• PUBLICATIONS

• Jan van Duijnhoven "Celebration of Light"

• Authors: Hendrik Driessen, Jan Bor, Rudi Fuchs, Rick Vercauteren

• Hendrik Driessen:
  “The paintings force us, or rather invite us, to move about. We need to look at them from different vantage points in order to have a complete view of the whole. And even then it remains difficult to describe the work. This is precisely what makes installing and visiting an exhibition of his work such a fascinating experience…”

  Jan Bor:
  “The longer I look at his installations, the more lively and powerful they become. And not only that; I become sensitive to their differences. Each one proves to be different, in fact, and shows a different facet of ‘what’s going on with the light’, as Jan puts it. With each painting, for instance, there is a difference in the placement and width of the red, blue and yellow strips applied to the white, and that influences their interaction. Similarly, the white surfaces and the way in which they are stacked differ too. Warm red light and cool blue light alternate with each other as the yin and yang energies: according to ancient Chinese cosmology, these are the two forms of vital energy, qi, from which all phenomena originate. Somewhere in their midst lies, I believe, the jubilant radiance of yellow light. Joy can be found where that predominates. Just squint: the colors will mix and become orange, green, violet – all the colors of the rainbow. After that the primary colors bounce back, and you experience their varying rhythms. While you first saw motionlessness, now everything moves and trembles. This is how the paintings show the different nuances and intensities of light.”
  “The intensity and the timbre of hues begin to grow and, as a viewer, you grow with them. As you’re carried away in the dance of white light and colors, the space expands and its boundaries vanish.
  It is the open mind, or the receptive heart (xin) – Jan van Duijnhoven’s mind and heart – that can make light shine and shimmer, and pass this on to us by way of the paintings. That vibrant light takes us to our own receptive and empty mind or heart. As the heart is boundless, it moves freely in a space without demarcation. The Zuangzi puts this as follows:

  ‘Leap into the boundless and make it your home.’

  A house has walls; the boundless does not. Although the latter cannot serve as a house, it is possible to feel at home in it. It is this boundless space which is created by light: this is the space referred to by Jan van Duijnhoven at the start of our conversation. It does indeed arise from the light that is illuminated by the open and boundless heart. The joy that accompanies this is manifest and palpable in Van Duijnhoven’s brilliant work.”

  Rudie Fuchs:
  “We see colors first becoming visible in a spotless surface of white. What also happens then is that, in white surroundings, an intense color will produce a slight afterglow – if the light is relatively bright and clear like daylight. Color is at its best in daylight. In this work the colors are never figuration. Nor are they compositions, so they don’t need to be geared to each other. Each color is separate, and an inexorable moment of light. If it were up to Jan van Duijnhoven, colors would be linked as little as possible to the substance of paint or to atmospheric effects…”
  “In these paintings we see an intense white which is pure light, and consequently a blue that is a feathery passage of color, as weightless as light itself. This is how fathomless this abstract painting is in that vast expanse of light.”

  Rick Vercauteren:
  “Throughout his entire life, visual artist Jan van Duijnhoven (Uden, 1944) has observed – from early morning to late evening – the energetic and physical components of wavelengths in light.”
  “With modulating white, red, blue and yellow the painter studiously renders, time and again, the incidence and the refraction of natural light. Initially Jan van Duijnhoven’s artworks appear to be abstract and non-figurative, but in fact they are highly concrete.
  All of the pictorial elements, the refractions and the divisions, the space as well as the coloration essentially relate to light and its effect on the human retina. Every day pure light is perceived by us – via the eyes – as abstract-looking divisions and color separations.”
  “In the realization of his compositions Van Duijnhoven likewise does not, contrary to nearly all fellow artists of his generation, employ accepted geometric principles or classical perspective dating from the Renaissance. In his artworks, by definition free of any context but also free of any outlines or drawn lines, there are moreover no points of orientation or references to other objects or substances to be found. Apart from that, the oeuvre of Jan van Duijnhoven has no distinct, independent spatial category or spatial factor.
  For the sake of clarity: the spatiality in the oeuvre of Van Duijnhoven is always associated with light and with the effects of refracting, expanding and shimmering light. This idea leads, in my view, to the unambiguous art-historial conclusion that, in his works of art, space has been transformed into light. That is to say, in this unique oeuvre the phenomena of space and light converge as one, from a philosophical as well as a painterly point of view.”

• Eerdere publicaties / Previous publications:

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• "Cobra tot Zero" Collectie Roetgering Uitgeverij De Kunst Zwolle 2015
  
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• "Collectie Museum van Bommel van Dam Collectie Knecht Drenth" Venlo 2014
  
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• "Reductive.NL" Four Generations of Abstract Geometric Art from the Netherlands. 2014
  
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• ‘Grosse Kunstausstellung NRW’ Düsseldorf 2008
  
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• 'Schildersdenken Paintersmetaphysics' , Jan van Duijnhoven, foreword A.deJongh-Vermeulen,
  Kempen Publishers Zaltbommel, 2008
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‘Motiva’ , international-konstruktiv-konkret-intelligibel, Austriacenter Viena, 2007

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‘Vertikal in Fläche und Raum’ ,text Dr Gerhard Leistner, Wiligrad-Schwerin 2005

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‘Hemelse Broed Celestial Brood’, text Mark Kremer, KempenPublishers Zaltbommel 2003

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‘exhibit E’ Washington 2003

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"Holland comes to Miami” Jan van Duijnhoven, Bert Loerakker, Jan van Munster,
Reinoud van Vught, Eric de Nie, Luc Leestemaker, text Josien Stehouwer 2001

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‘Hotel” CBKN Nijmegen 2000

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‘Bouwvak’ text Mark Kremer and Jelle Bouwhuis, Uden 1997

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‘Onbegrensde werkelijkheid’ Jan van de Dobbelsteen, Jan van Duijnhoven,
JCJ van de Heijden, Bert Loerakker, text Desirée Meulenbroek, 1993

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‘Stream of Thoughts’ Tilburg 1992

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• ‘De atonale schilderkunst van Jan van Duijnhoven’ text Frank Hoenjet, 1991
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• GRANTS
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• The Netherland Foundation of Art, Design and Architecture Amsterdam
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• Mondrianfoundation Amsterdam
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• Prince Bernhard Foundation Amsterdam
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• Province Noord Brabant

 

 

 

 

Dito©2009 | Jan van Duijnhoven| Netherlands |  janvanduijnhoven.nl