Annetta Willemse Paintings Expo's Blog

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Karen Walker and more in Arnhem

Blog (in Engels) naar aanleiding bezoek museum Arnhem, 12 Apr. 2012
Karen Walker The Emancipation Approximation

Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969) is a contemporary African American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work.

Her work was a few years ago presented on the Art Fair in Amsterdam. Recently her beautiful and powerful series: 'The Emancipation Approximation' was represented in the museum of modern art in Arnhem. Her work seems - at first sight - pretty and somehow melancholy. It reminds of the paper cuttings in sweet old portraits of children's profile.

It could also remind you of the Indonesian type of theater: were paper cuttings are being lighted, so that the shadows on a white screen are the actors. But when you start reading the works of Kara Walker, the whole history of men slides through your eyes. At that ain't a pretty one...

It is a real art to let you see it, as if you are a bystander watching the human race. But, somehow, you feel a part of that history and race ... and so part of the universal guilt.

Maria Roosen Charley Toorop BabyIn the museum in Arnhem we also saw Maria Roosen, her work is outside of the building: a group of tits!

And work of Charley Toorop (Katwijk 1891 - Bergen 1955). She worked mainly in the Netherlands, Amsterdam and Bergen. Did travel and work in Europe.

Almost communistic, her work, her self portraits, or the portraits of farmers. They are not likebel, but they show the power of the human presence. Not pretty, but strong.

I love this work of the baby. It is a small painting, it is not a 'pretty' baby you say 'oh too too toot' to! But a powerful portrait of a human being, although in a small form., with all the so called helplessness, but nevertheless a force. It reminds me of the paintings of Marlene Dumas, the big canvases with huge babies.