Water Works — Terra Nova
This summer, from 12 June to 5 September 2010, Kunsthal Rotterdam presents
over eighty works by painter and lithographer Jeroen Hermkens (1960). From
January 2009 onwards Hermkens travelled around the world for one and a half
years in order to register the activities of dredging company Van Oord based in
Rotterdam. Painting with powerful strokes of the brush and using only subtle
colours, Hermkens manages to portray various domains within the robust reality
of hydraulic engineering. His expressive paintings, lithographs and pen drawings
represent the activities of excavators and dredgers, hoisting cranes and
numerous ships and pontoons in a world of stone and steel, sand and water. A
large wall painting by Hermkens, which is 25 metres long and 6 metres high, is
also shown at the exhibition.
New Land
Hydraulic
engineering has always had a strong appeal on Dutch artists. In 1932 painter
Johan Mastenbroek (1875-1945) made drawings and paintings of the construction of
the IJsselmeer Dam. The ancient theme of the battle against water is given a new
look at the exhibition of work by Hermkens. For the first time ever the
technological innovations in hydraulic engineering, the scaling up of dredging
material and the size and complexity of large land reclamation projects are
portrayed. The Palm Islands, the artificial peninsulas constructed of sand
dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf on the coast of Dubai, are an
example of the reclamation of land, as is the Maasvlakte near Rotterdam and the
sand strip for the Hanzelijn near Lelystad; by means of pen drawings Hermkens
carefully seeks to find the exact right cut-out or detailed plan of the various
locations where Van Oord works.
Jeroen Hermkens
Jeroen Hermkens (1960) was educated at the Academie voor Beeldende
Kunsten (Academy of Visual Arts) in Utrecht and at the Atelier Lithografique
Champfleury in Paris. His paintings and lithographs have regularly been on
display both in the Netherlands and abroad. In1996 he was awarded the Dutch
Graphic Art Prize for his lithographs. Recently work by Hermkens was exhibited
at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (2007), at gallery Juffermans in Utrecht and
at the
Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (2009). After having been elected
Artist of the Year there was a solo presentation of his work at Museum Jan van
de Togt in Amstelveen in 2008. His work is included in a large number of art
collections of major companies, amongst which that of ING Bank, Rabobank, Shell,
Van Bruggen Adviesgroep and Van Lanschot Bankiers.
Collection
Koos van Oord
The works from the exhibition entitled Water Works -
Terra Nova were made on the occasion of the parting of Koos van Oord as CEO at
Van Oord. To the exhibition a richly illustrated publication on the Koos Van
Oord collection entitled Terra Nova is to appear, which will be published at
A.W.Bruna and contains accompanying texts by Jeroen Hermkens.
For impressions of artworks and the festive opening, please click here.
