Jan Grotenbreg
Jan Grotenbreg was born in the historical Dutch town of Alkmaar, famous for its legendary cheese market, in the northern part of Holland. He studied painting at the School of the Arts in the University city of Tilburg in the southern part of the country.
Since 1967 he works and lives in Amsterdam in a studio on the top floor in an extraordinary building, that has been created in the 1930′s especially for artists. From here, he has an incredible view of the sky with clouds that inspired him: “The constant change, elusiveness and evidence along with the fantastic gray colours form an interesting aspect, each cloud formation has one brilliant moment and when I see an interesting cloud I panic, I got to start working. This is the price I have to pay for this relationship”, according to Grotenbreg in an interview.
In 1970, Grotenbreg decided to paint a monochrome blue painting. With the limited space of the painting itself he intended to express ‘total space’. Seen from this perspective he started to paint the cloudy skies without the horizon. One can see these series as a continuation of the ancient Dutch landscape painting tradition. Grotenbreg’s clouds are seen as ‘powerful evocations of the experience of lying on your back chewing on a blade of grass and staring at the endless, continuously changing, the slow, theatrical cloud game (Dutch critic Ferd Op de Coul).
His paintings became part of modern art historical movements such as Fundamental panting (the identity of the medium; the surface, the paint and texture are more important than an image) en Hyperrealism (in which an image is even sharper depicted compared to a photograph). Grotenbreg also uses photography as means.
In 1996 Grotenbreg painted an indigo blue surface, the sky. A silver colored moon appeared in the moon light, in a secret, occult atmosphere. Then he made a whole series of ‘Moon Landscapes’ and ‘Moons and Moon Light’, which appeared during a trip through French villages when the street lights went out at night. At a certain moment a dog appeared in the painting, as a watch dog in between earth and sky. The separation in between earth and heavenly body then became his theme: ‘Some people regard these paintings as a silent protest against the world, but my goal is rather to find my own way in the chaotic times we live in’, he says.
In 2000, Grotenbreg added a new (earthly) dimension, when he began to experiment with cement on canvas, using it as a rough surface for an image. In this way he made the painting ‘Half Moon’ with a frame of cement. The result has been often compared to middle age mural painting, the so called fresco, painted in wet lime. This technique used to be in Europe a widespread decorative art form, of which the weathered parts are left. Grotenbreg is not so much interested in these decorations, but rather in the weather-beaten quality of it.
This is the starting point of an impressive series of animal studies in nature. Many animals such as the horse, cow and taurus and lesser known animals, such as a protected wild vulture bird species, the Egyptian river Nile bird Ibis and the threatened sparrow are depicted by Grotenbreg in a layer of grey cement with acryl paint in black and brown colours on canvas. He paints the animals he feels a certain connection to, especially the Ibis – the Ibis as God, the holy bird in ancient Egypt; he also made several journeys to Egypt.
Grotenbreg about this technique: “The surface layer with cement is unique, the technique is not used. Cement is for building and does not stick on canvas. After five years of experimenting, I have found the right combination to stick cement with acryl binder. One can only learn this by experience.”
He made several books of these works: Plougrescant; Haka, de Kauw; De Ibis; De maan; Werken op cement.