Throughout his career, Mulder has developed a body of work that establishes a dialogue with a tradition of European painting, which spans from Velázquez’s children to the distorted figures of Edward Munch. With an iridescent palette, his portraits, his flowers vases and still-life paintings emphasize psychological aspects (melancholy and euphoria) and a subjective dimension of the images. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith situates this most recent production in the gap between Raoul Dufy and Jackson Pollock. That is, between an essentially figurative painting with traditional themes on the one hand, and abstract expressionism on the other. His new works radically emphasize the materiality of painting, being conceived in a physical way. The gesture is strikingly wide, quick, and omnipresent. The spiral brush strokes, graphic-like, retro modernist mark-making bring a contemporary edge to this genre.
Gerben Mulder’s paintings are of figures caught at the moment of contorted darkness with their bodies and their desires hanging out in a ripe suggestive manner. The obtuse sexuality and hints of sorcery are all part of Mulder’s painting language that explores the darker side of the human experience.