Page 28 - Jan Peter van Opheusen Exhibition Bali 2014

JAN PETER VAN OPHEUSDEN: A MASTER OF THE INTUITIVE

Jean Couteau

When writing on art, Sunday critics do have some well-honed All this to come to the works of an artist I barely know, whose works it. Even if he knows the rules of academism, he looks indifferent J.P van Opheusden is a well-known painter in Holland. Born in
techniques picked up from out of the blue to comment on any I just discovered a few weeks ago, Jan Peter van Opheusden, and to representation and its related problematic. Reality matters to Eindhoven (1941) where he still lives today, he was not trained at a
artist they dont like so much, or else dont understand. Lets which have stunned me. But how can words convey the rhythm that him only as the locus of his emotions, and representation as the proper art school, but at the Academy voor Industriele Vormgeving
imagine it is a male artist. They can talk about his achievements inhabits them, as they combine and pulsate within one another, feld of his intuitions. (Design Academy) in Eindhoven, an environment which probably
and invent him qualities he does not have. They can focus on a when not standing out in a sudden contrast and burst of red, blue gave him more leeway to express himself outside the fashions of
detail in his life that they falsely underline as signifcant. They can and more. Do they shape forms or fgures? Yes, they seem in an To him, the world is not out there to be understood, it has instead the day. He has exhibited throughout Europe and in the US. One
also ramble about his artistic education and hence his masterly instant to do so in shadows, but, a while later, no! to be his world, fully encapsulated in the way he feels it ---which also fnds him in many publications, including in a book, Oog in
technique unless they decide to gloss about his autodidact is why he translates it in fuctuating colors and indefnable forms. Oog ,Eye to Eye, where he stands next to the likes of Corneille
backgroundand hence his trueness and spontaneity. It becomes obvious the subject our eyes wants to see is not the So, contrary to modern artists, one cannot say of his art that it is and Picasso.
fnal and only one. As soon as it is on the verge of fully standing based on a systematic exploration of form and even less color. It is
When out of inspiration, they dont hesitate to peremptorily out, it already futters and moves, to be eventually turned too intuitive for that. His paintings may be musical, but certainly not I cannot read Dutch, so cannot guess what Dutch writers have
attribute to his art any convenient identity; they will for example into something feeting, beyond any defnition, or rather always in the intellectual way of someone like Kandinsky. They are more said about his works, but it is obvious to me that JPs paintings
say, if he is a Westerner painting in Bali, how Asian is the spirit between any fxed state of form and color. Indefnable and spontaneous or, let me use the word, more naïve. If music there transcends any defnite classifcation of style. The only certainty
of his work. In last instance, they can even talk about his wife, cars fuliginous are perhaps the best adjectives to qualify what one is in them, it is more like the music of the fute-playing shepherd is that they are becoming increasingly rich in color, ethereal and
and children. In short, they can say anything or nothing, and more. sees, as forms and colors successively grow, then wither and than that of the conductor. intuitive. They reveal a fragile, innocent soul in its encounters with
blend into one another, continuously morphing into forms and un- life and a reality he does not really know how to cope with, except
So how to deal with an artist whose work you truly like but dont morphing into colors. Looking at a J.Ps painting is thus a purely Yet J.P van Opheusden is not guided by any psychologism either, in painting, with color. So, to defne him, let us be as subjective
really know and if you try not to write like a Sunday critic. Heed my sensorial experience about something visual one feels and be it that of surrealism or Cobra. It is not the exploration of the and hazy as he is, as well as avoid any defnition that would be a
advice: forget the tricks above, and write with your heart, with all does not have to comprehend to love. self he is after. In his works, it is the unconscious rather than the confnement of sorts. So let us call him a master of the intuitive.
the force of your subjectivity, and with full awareness of it. It may be subconscious that comes out. Something that fows out, just like
the only way to really enter the soul of his works. If you succeed A few things can be explained though. It is obvious that J.P van that, effortless, at what he sees, experiences and feels. What he
doing so, the who-s, why-s and how-s will come to you naturally, to Opheusden is on the side of the subjective. Reality may be what senses at the view of a woman, of a fower, of Bali. Intuition rules.
help justify your appreciation. he has all around himself, but it does not interest him in itself. He Translated in color, and with an exceptional intensity.
does not want to describe it, and even less study and delineate