Jaap van den Ende - Active Landscapes
‘Behind observable reality lies a web of processes and laws.’ This thought has been the starting point for Jaap van den Ende’s (Delft, 1944) paintings from the beginning of his career until today. AKINCI is proud to present van den Ende’s solo exhibition Active Landscapes, with a combination of new and old works.
The exhibition, Active Landscapes, includes van den Ende’s most recent series of works. The play between figuration and abstraction is central. This time the theme is landscapes formed by natural processes of creation and decay. Nature is the best example of how underlying systems continue to change and evolve. Van den Ende shows the diversity of nature by depicting its extremes; elemental primal landscapes that manifest themselves in vast plains, high mountain peaks and gushing waterfalls.
Jaap van den Ende gained international recognition for his abstract paintings of the 1960s and 1970s. In line with the basic painting and conceptual art established at the time, his early work was characterised by cool, geometric compositions and abstract colour research. In the 1980s he gradually introduced figuration into his paintings, and from the late 1990s he juxtaposed figuration and abstraction within a single painting. In the most recent series of works, figuration continues to play an important role. However, his current working method remains closely linked to the methodical approach he adopted almost 60 years ago.