The image of the artist who first has to destroy in order to be able to create is literally given shape by the Dutch artist Ton van Kints (The Hague, 1955). His work is marked by a method that you can call both destructive and constructive. Van Kints cuts wooden plates into simple, loose parts and then re-assembles these pieces into a whole, like a self-created puzzle. However, the complexity of the image is always tempered by the readability of the action. His often cryptic titles refer to the event that took place under his hands.
The material determines the appearance of the work to a large extent. You can see that Ton van Kints respects how his material behaves. At the same time he subjects it to his own scenario. He talks about his works as if they were characters, co-actors. These are directed by the artist. It is fitting, measuring and rearranging.
This has resulted in a large group of round reliefs under the collective name 'cuckoo nests'. One work derives from the other. They have family relationships, while each of them has their own unmistakable character.
His most recent works have arisen by assembling two or more upon each other. He treats these 'laggards' in the same way as he previously did the cut-out parts, by placing them in a new context. The logic behind Van Kints' art - the dialogue with things - remains unchanged. The reliefs have become thicker, stacked and covered with a layer of epoxy. The gloss layer creates a closed unity of the stack, but you still see the remains of the earlier work. That is the 'dialogica' of Van Kints.
Van Kints studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (MO-B Drawing 1974-1979) and Pratt Graphic Center in New York (1981-82). Since 1990 he has been a lecturer at the departments of Photography and Visual Arts at the KABK in The Hague.