29 november 2022, Flor Linckens
Marc Mulders: the rhythm, energy and beauty of nature
Until 1 January 2023, the solo exhibition 'Garden Path' by the Dutch artist Marc Mulders will be on show in NQ Gallery in Antwerp. For this exhibition, he was inspired by the nature that surrounds this studio.
The artist's pasty, pastel-coloured oil paintings tell us something about the rhythm, energy and beauty of nature. He considers himself an abstract impressionist and besides being a painter, he also works as a photographer and glazier. His garden in his farm studio is filled with flowers planted by the artist for inspiration. He also calls it 'his own private Giverny', after Claude Monet's garden near Paris. The artist also creates still lifes in his studio.
Mulders: “During spring and summer, I sniff the scents. In the fall, I paint with the echo of that floral splendour in my head. And in winter, I am driven by the longing for the new flowers that will spring up in my field.”
In earlier works, Mulders also reflected on the fact that his personal paradise was endangered by illegally dumped polluted soil in the nature reserve where his studio is located. Sometimes he also paints living and dead animals, such as hares and pheasants.
Mulders regularly refers to art-historical traditions in which flowers symbolise, among other things, our mortality and the cycle from life to death. Religion also plays an important and recurring role, though implicitly, with themes such as paradise and the contrast between good and evil. Mulders also likes to be inspired by non-Western art such as Chinese drawing and Persian miniatures and by the work of artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Chaïm Soutine, Helen Frankenthaler and Willem de Kooning.
The religious aspect of his work is also reflected in the fact that he made several stained glass windows, including for St. Stevens Church in Nijmegen ('Pelican' and 'Stigmata'), Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht ('Apocalypse') , St. John's Cathedral in Den Bosch ('The Last Judgment') and a memorial window for the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Queen Beatrix's reign.
The artist studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Sint-Joost in Breda. In 1985, he won a Prix de Rome and in 2017 he was Dutch artist of the Year. His work has been included in the collections of, among others, the Stedelijk Museum, ABN AMRO, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Rijksmuseum, the Rabobank, the Noordbrabants Museum, the Van Abbemuseum, Museum Voorlinden, De Nederlandsche Bank, Museum De Pont, the Centraal Museum, NN Group, Museum de Lakenhal and the Dutch embassies in Berlin, London, Djakarta, Ottawa, Beijing and Sydney. Mulders showed his paintings in solo exhibitions at the Frans Hals Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the Van Abbemuseum and Kunsthal Kade.
