Tropenmuseum the artist talked to his former classmates,
visual artists like Han Schuil, Aernout Mik and Berend
Strik, but also the present Amsterdam city poet Frank
Starik.
Although the state of mind of the artist has varied over
time, according to moods on specifics locations we met,
the overall assessment of Ab's personality testifies to a
great adaptability to changing circumstance in the
complexities of daily life. Apart from camping outdoors,
which Ab vehemently considers to be below human
dignity, the artist combines a superb abiltity to behave
like a grudging child, a grumbler in late morning,
combined with the style of a brilliant causeur late
afternoon. Working in the afternoon and late at night,
Van Hanegem's painterly space has developed slowly
into a woven cloth, loaded with channels, patterns and
colorful relations.
"How about the poppy airbrush technique, which suggests the cheap thrill of shadow?", I finally asked. The artist
answered that use of the technique of cut and paste might look kitschy, but really it was not. The shadows that he used
to emphasize a painterly illusion of space, served to introduce his secret 3D weapon: the blob. The blob was a product of
airbrush, constructed as a kind of hole within the image. A hole in the view of the painter could only be a painted hole.
Something out of a movie previously seen. To understand the tricky world of modern life, with its multitudes of codes,
suggesting secret understanding had been the lifelong subject of the artist's painted object. The hole plays with
perspectives. Either you look into it or not. The hole undermines the painterly observation of certainties. This is the
reason Van Hanegem's paintings had sold thus far. Paintings were bought into collections like the Stedelijk Museum
of Amsterdam, Ahold, Akzo, KPN, and not to forget City Hall Flushing.
On the Flushing portrait we see a colorful snake like form, suggesting the Scheldt river, through which all commerce
floats. The painting is perfect for the room. The painting is a reflection of the table. At the table local political affairs are
discussed by the burgomaster and the aldermen, i somehow sensed, that the great pure painterly quality of Van Hanegem
as an artist lies within his unique genius to use tricks and snares in order to communicate to the observer the intricate
play of layers and coats, that can be looked down upon as the manifestation of primary undercuts in low lands art. So to
speak, a pedestrian look at things. The use of coincidence in sprinkling, which follows an instinctive pattern, can very
well be conceived and understood as a topological matrix, a painted representation of empty, but rigorously structured
space. It just might be true in the artist's paintings, that their unifying element lies within a noble and precious ability to
generously divide paint over the canvas in a closed system of trust.
The new capricious blobs in this closed structure of isometrical geometry, emphasized by sprayed shadows, blow up
further the illusion of space. Van Hanegem's paintings are very, very layered. For each new layer of paint, older layers
have to be taped and covered with cut out paper. In this respect the artist truly can be called a blind painter, working his
way through the layers of paint much like a mole, who does not see the result of his labor until it is completely finished.
The tape Ab uses is about half in inch wide. I know this detailbecause in 2005 the artist called on me in Amsterdam
from his Berlin studio. He had run out of tape, and could I get a sufficient supply in a specialized tape store and send it
off to Berlin immediately? I did. For the effect of the blind tape method is a turmoil of hard edged shapes and colors, that
constitute a complex but clear closed system of paint, which very much resembles the character and personality of the
artist. Ab van Hanegem paints abstract selfportraits. At no point in this whirlpool imagery a Gordian knot is cut. Rather
the observer is drawn into the painting on a psychedelic Moebius Ring type trip. Formally foreground and background
flow into each other endlessly, without beginning or end. That is why Ab is a tough painter.
Text DALSTAR Photography Ab van Hanegem, archive Ab van Hanegem/Dalstar, except Frank Viergever [pi],
Leo van Kampen [pV], Bart Domburg [pvll] Design decreet, Middelburg Print drukkerij Verhage, Middelburg
appendix decreet 05, april 2011
Installation shot of Van Hanegem's Scheldt river painting at
the Burgomaster S£ Aldermen Kabinet Room in Flushing Town Hall, spring 2002
XII I
Artist Impression voor Marie Tak van Poortvlietmuseum, Domburg 2011
visual Bureau [Ssse]
