Kaj Derks

While a lot of people have already asked me if I’m aware of the fact that this may make people think it is a Mondrian rip off, I am happy to be back into applying de Stijl to my work. This is my main concern in painting, it is a language I am trying to learn.

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After finishing this I have the exact feeling that I now know the answer of the question: why do I like the picture that I bought at the fleamarket in Berlin. Why did I pick this picture, among others, from a box with hundreds of pictures? Of course I could have explained this verbally but it would miss that what it makes it an image. If you want to answer this question without translating it to letters and words, than de Stijl is the language to communicate in.

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Okay, the result is not the virtous picture with a shitload of expression or a deeper meaning and also not a social/politically engaged work. Now, it’s a reaction from itself about itself placing it somewhere in the universe.

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At this moment I’d better shut up.

It is wellknow that most times a flash kills more than it adds to a photo. This picture was a great example for that.

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The picture I used was flashed straight in the face, resulting in this lady in a uniformlike costume without an expression. Her face plain white like a mask.

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Giving me the oppertunity to play around with a shitload of white paint. But on second hand, I think I should take it easy with the titaniumoxide.

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With the other paintings to not overdo it.

If Otto would be in his twenties right now, in Berlin where I bought this picture, he would be the boss of all hipsterparties.

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This because of his epic moustache. It is for this reason that I bought his portrait.

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I think he’s got a lot to thank his stache for. At least this painting.

By now it’s obvious that not all the pictures I paint are self-made. They used to be but I’ve reached a mindset where I don’t value the source of an image so much anymore. Resulting in the usage of old black and white pictures and maybe – who knows – in the future any picture I see.

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A couple weeks ago I was in Berlin on a flea-market and bought a bunch of ofd portraits of pretty woman, with no single reference to what is pretty except my own at that moment. Knowing that the people pictured are nowadays elderly or even already deceased gave the oppertunity to make images of what I thought of when looking at the picture.

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This way I wouldn’t call it a portrait. More likely a collection, or a collage of features that I found remarkable or appealing translated in paint.

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The product looks to me more like a classical symphony of colors and brushstrokes than a portrait. Since I know it’s a painting it feels like music and gives me an idea of what music would look like if it was visible.

Last week, my girlfriend asked me if I ever painted things that I made up myself. Let’s call it fantasy.

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‘No’ was my answer to that question thought after painting this I realize that this answer is not the truth.Not only because I painted a big red dot in the middle.

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Lately I’m making up the entire coloring of the painting. I found out that painting black and white pictures is a very pleasant thing to do but the thing I miss is color. So I just make that up. Easy as that.

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It’s like re-animating somebody from an old picture. So, no deep theory or neo-plastisism maybe it’s practising portraitpainting. For sure it’s having fun.