Artwork Data
Title
Meeuw
Artist
Year
2005-2008
Material
Emaille
Partial collection
Artwork Location
Address
Diverse woonhuizen verspreid Ypenburg, Den Haag
City district
Leidschenveen-Ypenburg
GPS data
52.040041077622, 4.3709525026855 View on map
Artwork Description
Text
For Kunst aan Huis, painter Jeroen Allart created a series of seven enamel signs with animals (a penguin, dog, woodpecker, horse, tern and gull) and a succulent plant. Scattered throughout Ypenburg you can see them mounted on facades of houses. The simple way he depicted the animals and the plant, the color scheme and the execution in enamel recall old billboards.
Allart enjoys plenty of fame in Holland as a painter of landscapes with extremely low horizons. In doing so, he renewed the tradition of the Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. He paints cowboys, farms of all shapes and sizes, ships, windmills, lighthouses, not to mention dozens of birds, cats and dogs. All of his subjects he invariably places against a stark, monochromatic background. Nowhere a cloud in the sky to be seen. People, until recently, hardly at all either. He also paints the subjects themselves extremely austere and flat. Preferably only one color per surface. This results in almost caricatural, cartoon-like representations.
You might think that "stripping" birds, plants and landscapes makes reality flatter than it is. Yet Allart manages to achieve the opposite with his representations. His representations are so simple and attractive that he entices you to rediscover the beauty of his subjects. Moreover, he presents the viewer with wonderful combinations. A mega-stable or wind turbine appears in the landscape just as easily as an idyllic farmhouse or an old windmill.
Also important is the intention with which Allart makes art. In his view, it must be understandable and available to everyone. That is why, in addition to small and larger paintings, he also makes murals in public spaces and comics on commission. The Kunst aan Huis project fits in seamlessly with his vision.