Imagination from within, expectation from without
A rectangular villa on stilts nestled against a hill. A reflecting indoor pool with unobstructed views of the greenery. A spacious library with comfortable seating.
The buildings and interiors in Toon Berghahn's paintings exude wealth and status. They are a mirror of the inhabitants who have apparently just walked out of the picture. And they mirror a world onto which we, the viewers, project our desires and dreams.
They are based on photographs of - preferably - modernist architecture the artist has taken himself or found on the internet. They are not literal copies but interpretations, echoes of a recognisable language of form that is past its prime. What remains is a kind of film set where cast and crew have walked away but the lights are still on. In the absence of action, our brain fills the image with memories and associations.
The angular ‘living machines’ have something unapproachable and look slightly uncanny. They stand in the lush landscapes that Berghahn let play the main role early in his career. Gradually, these have been relegated to the wings and become embedded. Executed in thickly applied paint, organic nature is a little rebellious and does not allow itself to be tamed, but still lapses against the geometry of man-made architecture, which Berghahn painted on the panel with an almost impersonally smooth brushstroke
Berghahn's recent works regularly feature coloured panels, as in his earliest paintings of modernist buildings. Back then, these were pavilions and the panels were reminiscent of monochrome paintings. Now they tend more towards banners or flags, and placed on the facade their function changes altogether. But their colour scheme is absolutely painterly. The delicate yellows, mossy greens, virgin blues, muted lilacs and receding pinks all refer to the Pre-Raphaelite palette - but captured in the angular vocabulary of the modernists.
Like these 19th-century artists who wanted to return to the simplicity of pre-Renaissance innovator Raphael, Berghahn pursues maximum realism. If he does not succeed enough with paint alone, he does not hesitate to add a three-dimensional element. With a batten along a balcony or wall, he adds depth and shadow to the scene. The painted illusion thus becomes spatial reality that at first glance seems lifelike but on closer inspection is nevertheless a construction. In this respect, too, Berghahn balances on the dividing line between inner imagination and outer expectation.
Text Edo Dijksterhuis