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GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING: The US in 7 artworks
Had the offices been open, the US presidential election would undoubtedly have been the talk at the coffee machine. You can't really ignore it. On news apps, online, on TV, on the radio and in the newspaper, besides Corona, it's all about one thing: who will be the next resident of the White House? Will it be four more years for Trump or do we get Biden after a peaceful transition?
The race starts early in the year with the Iowa caucus and continues to gain momentum and media attention after Super Tuesday. After the party congresses, the campaigns run at full speed and every incident, every move and every voter group are analyzed by an army of journalists, experts and experts with their own jargon with terms such as superpacs, swing states, grassroots, voter suppression and the reassuringly friendly sounding October Surprise. In short: you can spend days reading reports, predictions and analyses.
Anyone who’s had enough of it can resort to art. Art is always slightly further removed from the issues of the day, but still gives a good picture of a society. I thought it would be a good idea to stick to the theme and show America through 7 artists who make work about the US. Some are American, others are European artists working in the US. Buckle up and your motor running…
The race starts early in the year with the Iowa caucus and continues to gain momentum and media attention after Super Tuesday. After the party congresses, the campaigns run at full speed and every incident, every move and every voter group are analyzed by an army of journalists, experts and experts with their own jargon with terms such as superpacs, swing states, grassroots, voter suppression and the reassuringly friendly sounding October Surprise. In short: you can spend days reading reports, predictions and analyses.
Anyone who’s had enough of it can resort to art. Art is always slightly further removed from the issues of the day, but still gives a good picture of a society. I thought it would be a good idea to stick to the theme and show America through 7 artists who make work about the US. Some are American, others are European artists working in the US. Buckle up and your motor running…
Duncan Hannah
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 6 Oeuvres disponibles
0 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
We start in New York. Painter Duncan Hannah is a veteran of the New York art scene, yet thematically and stylistically he has always remained an outsider. In the early 1980s, Andy Warhol asked him what he was up to. Hannah told him he was working in the style of the French painter Balthus, whereupon Warhol called his assistant and said: "We must start making work in the style of Balthus." A bigger compliment is hardly conceivable.
The reference to Balthus is in place - Hannah's work has an ominous undercurrent, even if little or nothing happens - although a reference to Edward Hopper's quiet loneliness is also appropriate. Hannah’s work often refers to the glamour of Hollywood and European cinema from his youth. You can see that nostalgia in this more recent series with typical American cityscapes with high-rise buildings and cinemas too, such as in the beautiful Truffaut Double Feature.
The reference to Balthus is in place - Hannah's work has an ominous undercurrent, even if little or nothing happens - although a reference to Edward Hopper's quiet loneliness is also appropriate. Hannah’s work often refers to the glamour of Hollywood and European cinema from his youth. You can see that nostalgia in this more recent series with typical American cityscapes with high-rise buildings and cinemas too, such as in the beautiful Truffaut Double Feature.
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 67 Oeuvres disponibles
14 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
Next stop is Houston, Texas where the American photographer (with Dutch heritage, in case you’re wondering about the surname) Bryan Schutmaat is working hard. Schutmaat became known for portraits of miners and people who make the most of it in the remote and inhospitable parts of the Rocky Mountains and with a poignant series about a friend who is serving a five-year sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. His social involvement and eye for nature did not go unnoticed. Schutmaat was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship earlier this year and the living legend of the New Topographics Robert Adams recently called him one of the greatest photographers of his generation. Due to the pandemic, Schutmaat was unable to take portraits, so he chose to stay close to home and photograph the Texas desert. The result is a staggering report with abandoned and dilapidated houses, dirt roads, a polluted desert and oil wells.
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 17 Oeuvres disponibles
7 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 2 Recommandations
The US is the land of Abstract Expressionism and the road trip. Koen van den Broek effortlessly combines these two elements in his work. Almost every year he traverses the immense country by car. From east to west or north to south, it doesn't really matter to Van den Broek. On the way he does not aim his camera at sights or at the vast landscapes any way; he has more of an eye for a dilapidated road surface, viaducts, curbs and bicycle paths.
Once back in Antwerp, the photos merely serve as a source of inspiration for his paintings. He only uses parts of them: he combines a shadow from one photo with a fence from the other. As a result, his works balance on the border of abstraction and figuration. You can look at a work like Hamptons endlessly, without ever finding out exactly what you are looking at - my first association was with an aerial photo of the Netherlands because of the tight, blue lines – but rather the question is whether that is important.
Once back in Antwerp, the photos merely serve as a source of inspiration for his paintings. He only uses parts of them: he combines a shadow from one photo with a fence from the other. As a result, his works balance on the border of abstraction and figuration. You can look at a work like Hamptons endlessly, without ever finding out exactly what you are looking at - my first association was with an aerial photo of the Netherlands because of the tight, blue lines – but rather the question is whether that is important.
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 6 Oeuvres disponibles
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We’ll stay in Texas for a bit. In Paris, Texas to be precise. The desolate hamlet that became world famous in one fell swoop by Wim Wenders' eponymous masterpiece. Schutmaat could have photographed there, because Paris is not that far from Houston. America is of course not only the country of the road trip, but also of the movies.
Films play a major role in the installations of the Berlin-based American artist Tracey Snelling. She always incorporates cultural references into her works whether they be political figures, typical American motels and shops or movies. She named this series of sculptures of motels after films she saw in her youth in the US. Easy Rider, Don't look now and Paris, Texas, all films in which a great human drama occurs (i.e. murder, loss of a child, divorce) and with an uncanny undertone. You’ll find that uncanny, indefinable feeling in her miniature version of Paris, Texas too. The cool blue light coming towards you is anything but reassuring.
Films play a major role in the installations of the Berlin-based American artist Tracey Snelling. She always incorporates cultural references into her works whether they be political figures, typical American motels and shops or movies. She named this series of sculptures of motels after films she saw in her youth in the US. Easy Rider, Don't look now and Paris, Texas, all films in which a great human drama occurs (i.e. murder, loss of a child, divorce) and with an uncanny undertone. You’ll find that uncanny, indefinable feeling in her miniature version of Paris, Texas too. The cool blue light coming towards you is anything but reassuring.
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 30 Oeuvres disponibles
5 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
Robin de Puy should not be missing from this collection. The beauty of her work is that she sees beauty in places where others do not see it: in remote places and in people who at first glance do not conform to the conventional ideas about beauty.
De Puy became known with a universal story. A young woman crosses the US by motorcycle to overcome her fears and get to know herself better. On the way, she especially paid attention to people on the fringes of society, the outsiders. She spends a few days with them, and this is reflected in the intimacy of the photos, as in the portrait of Belinda.
De Puy became known with a universal story. A young woman crosses the US by motorcycle to overcome her fears and get to know herself better. On the way, she especially paid attention to people on the fringes of society, the outsiders. She spends a few days with them, and this is reflected in the intimacy of the photos, as in the portrait of Belinda.
0 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 5 Oeuvres disponibles
0 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
If there is such a thing as a comedian's comedian, Tim Carpenter is the equivalent in photography. His books sell well among connoisseurs, but reaching a large audience is difficult with photos of front gardens, street furniture and gutters of suburban America. Carpenter takes pictures of nothing. At least, of things that don't stand out. For that, he always travels back to where he grew up in Illinois, a place like so many others in the US. The streets are wide and empty and time seems to stand still. Carpenter, along with Raymond Meeks and Bryan Schutmaat, is considered to be part of a movement called New Ruralism. They all received the same training in Hartford, Connecticut and produce thematically related work. Carpenter once entrusted me with the most important lesson he learned there: by reading a lot, you become a better artist. Without Celine, Tolstoy or Rilke, no photos of generic garden fences.
4 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 2 Oeuvres disponibles
2 Spectacles ᛫ 1 Points forts ᛫ 3 Recommandations
The tech giants also come from the US, from Silicon Valley to be exact. Let’s be honest, where would we be without them? Every day we peek at our phone for hours on end, we text all day long, we bank, book(ed) holidays and buy art online. While we were blissfully texting about nothing and watched cat videos like zombies, the online and offline reality gradually integrated and became more and more alike. They just about fused together. The American artist Tabor Robak comments on this new reality with installations characterized by a “desktop screensaver aesthetic”.
That theme, including the dusty Windows 95 aesthetic, is also reflected in the technical tour de force Northstar. We see a landscape that adapts to the time of day and the latitude and longitude of where the animation is played. By means of software, Robak links the virtual world to ours, so that the time and position of the sun in both worlds match and the real world merges with the digital right in front of us.
That theme, including the dusty Windows 95 aesthetic, is also reflected in the technical tour de force Northstar. We see a landscape that adapts to the time of day and the latitude and longitude of where the animation is played. By means of software, Robak links the virtual world to ours, so that the time and position of the sun in both worlds match and the real world merges with the digital right in front of us.