Frank
van Hemert
Und die Frauen warten..
(and the women are waiting..)
It's
an archaic image that regularly surfaces in literature and art: 'Und
die Frauen warten…' women waiting for the return of their husbands
after the war. We have Medea who took fate into her own hands but in the
end had to concede to the Gods wishes, and Mother Courage who follows the
soldiers as a canteen woman. In a more modern image from Fassbinder's film
Die Ehe der Maria Braun, we have Hanna Sehygulla searching for her husband.
In a grey cotton dress and a grim expression she walks by full railway
carriages carrying a piece of cardboard around her neck with her husbands
name on it.
To illustrate this image the artist presents a newspaper clipping
showing three women wrapped in black cloth. They are waiting in the
lraq desert for the return of their men. The image of waiting woman
is versatile and moving. Van Hemert uses this image in contrast with
the direct aggression of men and against destruction and war. In
his studio I am confronted by large paintings depicting sunflowers
on colorful backgrounds. "Und die Frauen warten".
I look at the paintings he is showing me. The sunflowers are in one
moment flaming yellow and alive, and in the next moment dried up,
pointy and static. They spin through a space made of paint; turning
away from each other or bending over towards the viewer. If you would
imagine the sunflowers as women, you would recognize their change
of position, body-movements and frame of mind. The positions of the
sunflower/women are as various as the fortunes of the women in the
literature and movies from my introduction.
It seems like a roundabout way to convey the image of waiting women by painting
sunflowers instead of women themselves. The relationship between the two becomes
clear when you look at earlier work by Van Hemert. The series 'You/Me' from
1989 shows dandelions. Their meandering stems obscure a second drawing. Against
the background of an indefinable space you can make out several entangled bodies.
A man and a woman, several men, several women? Only the title hints in the
direction of a man and a woman. Van Hemert often uses open or hidden sexuality
in his work. The theme, the tension between man and woman, loneliness and the
desire for unification is mixed in with the flower motif. Van Hemert connects
it to the archaic. He wants to express universal thoughts and ideas. The physical
experience leads directly to a higher metaphysical level. The series 'Mind
of Tibet' from 2002 was inspired by the image of a burning monk. This physical
deed of self-incineration is also connected to the desire for wisdom and freedom.
The way in which Van Hemert turns different motifs into themes reminds me of
the descriptions by Antje von Graevenitz at the beginning of the eighties
concerning the influence of alchemy on art, such as she saw in Brancusi
and the hidden codes in his work, In alchemy numbers, ratios, substances
and materials play a part. Alchemists strive for unification and wisdom
which can be expressed in the wish for absolute unification of man and
woman. Searching for the philosophers' stone can also be interpreted as
a metaphor. Von Graevenitz recognized the method of alchemists in the work
of Brancusi, and went on to talk about the work of Sigmar Polke. The way
in which Van Hemert paints and uses motifs and themes, comes directly from
this tradition. A tradition which is interwoven with his passion for painting.
This feeling is especially strong when I look at his work on paper.
A collage where Van Hemert uses wide strips of paper to weave a kind
of mat draws my attention. The surface is dark, almost black. On top
of several sunflowers the squares for a game of hop-scotch are drawn
and in them the numbers of one through seven. Experimenting like an
alchemist, he unconditionally surrenders to the art of painting. This
experimentation and surrender culminates in the series 'Und die Frauen
warten…". When an artist paints sunflowers
he automatically refers to Van Gogh. So this series brings different elements
together: war, painting, a mystical longing for unification, sexuality and
cosmos.
In his catalogue-text Franz Kaiser rightly places the work of Frank van Hemert
somewhere between the abstract-expressionists, for whom the painting of archaic
themes were still self-evident, and the work of Bruce Nauman [11). This notion
was inspired by a video by Bruce Nauman from 1968 'Bouncing two balls between
the floor and ceiling with changing rhythms' [2], The film fascinated Van Hemert,
It made him identify the way in which a painter in his studio develops the
physical process between paint and hls most intimate thoughts. In 1969 Bruce
Nauman made the film 'Bouncing Balls' which can be seen as the sequel to 'Bouncing
two balls between the floor and ceiling with changing rhythms' [3]. In this
film he shows his balls. This clearly shows again the direct connection between
the physical, the sexual, the process of painting and Van Hemert's themes.
The result is remarkable, There is a sense of relief, an experience of beauty,
when there is unbridled painting, If there is anything that gives Van Hemert's
work contemporary relevance, it is this faith in the physical process with
which he withdraws himself from the rationalization of art, He refuses to submit
the art of painting to the social scientific interpretations which currently
determine contemporary art.
Saskia Monshouwer, Amsterdam, July 2003
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