Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) sparked a painting revolution with minimal action and a velvet palette, amid contemporaries such as Pollock and de Kooning. Her revolutionary approach to making paint appear like a melody on the canvas led to delicate, charming but also monumental and architectural works.
Therefore, from now on, we will no longer talk about the ‘Separate Room’, but about the ‘Helen Frankenthaler Room’, where we display equally interesting works than in the main exhibition space.
ERWIN KEUSTERMANS
”The Ordinary Luminous” Solo exibition by Erwin Keustermans.
THE NEW KEUSTERMANS
The ‘new Keustermans’ is more spontaneous and intuitive, starting without a preconceived plan.
Not only has the relative importance of planning and execution shifted, but the nature of the drawing experience itself has evolved. The focus has shifted from the mechanics of lines, colours, and tools to the act of looking, the gestures of the hand, and the overall experience of drawing. This drawing experience has become the primary driving force behind Keustermans’ work.
Next we will discuss three possible key aspects of this ‘drawing-in-the-moment’ approach: direct action, imprecision, and lack of intent.
Direct action
Both Van Gogh and Twombly’s work exemplify what could be meant by direct action.
You go at it till it is finished. No putting aside the tools and time for reflection, no distancing from the thing you’re doing. Just paint this thing.
Cy Twombly left behind very little writing, but there is a very short essay from 1957 (published in an Italian art journal) in which he says:
“Each line is now the actual experience with its own innate history. It does not illustrate – it is the sensation of its own realization”
This is very much the ‘new Keustermans’. Drawing is no longer the premeditated record of a thought or emotion, the drawing is about doing things here fueled by the experience of being immersed in that action.
