René de Rooze :: paintings 2000

Paintings period 2000 - present

In recent years Rene has started to explore the influence of his past and tries to fit elements of these early memories into his attitude towards contemporary visual art in Western Europe. He attempts to make a fresh start and to discard unnecessary baggage by forgetting what he has learned at the Academy of Arts and after.

What he learned was useful in wielding the modern visual language. However, Rene remained conscious of other elements from long ago and far away, that did not seem to fit in. By removing this excess baggage and letting go of concepts, these elements resurface.

He returns to a primitivism that has always been present in its rudimentary form as an answer to the disillusion caused by the developments of western culture, politics and economy over the past 20 years. /as an answer to the sobering developments of western society over the past 20 years.

Letting go of concepts may seem surprising in a contemporary art scene that puts such emphasis on developing concepts. Rene is aware of this and realises that he operated in two different worlds/in between worlds. He uses the power of coincidence as an instrument to create spontaneous, beautiful and supposedly unattractive works.

Rene: I deal with chance/ possibility as a painting process. After so many years of forcing the will of the artist, the knowledge and skills of the painting profession onto the canvas, I want to free myself from "prior knowledge". I let the paint find its own way on the canvas. I do this by laying my canvases flat on the floor and using reasonably liquid acrylic paint. When it is dry, I continue the painting process on the easel. I then use oil paint and a palette knife, sometimes other materials are used. In terms of color, I am guided by my experiences in the Orient, the Far East and the Amazon areas where I have traveled and lived (Dutch New Guinea). The structure of the work refers to space, the universe.

From 2016 onwards, De Rooze creates the series "Abstract Galaxis Coincidentia Portraits", in which he pays tribute to his muses, women from India, Iran and Italy. These portraits are not literal renderings but rather interpretations that depict an interaction between model and painter. His experience in the former Dutch New Guinea and the encounter with Indische and Indonesian culture, imbued with mysticism and spirituality such as Goena Goena, may have had an unconscious influence on his work. The influences of his Indonesian and Dutch aunts, who shared a bond with the mystical, provided a basis for his abstract portraits.

These works are translated into "color fields", in which he combines colorful touches of acrylic paint and oil paint. By using spatulas, squeegees or by pouring paint, De Rooze creates spots of color that embody the character of the person depicted. He describes this unique approach as Abstract Romanticism, a style in which emotion and color meet.