Technique

Myrthe Verdonk works with thin, transparent paper. This material is most suitable for the subjects that she is interested in: vulnerability and transience. Transparent sheets of paper are stuck one on the other and are painted. Sometimes dried petals, ‘preserved’ by lacquer, have been added. Folds and creases give relief to the work and with fire holes have been burnt in or lines drawn on it. Thus works are created that stand midway between paintings and paperarts.

In the centre of the Sacred World, 1996

Theme

Every time a clear image draws attention, like a rose, a vase or a heart – images that have been shown in art for centuries. These images are circumplayed, adorned or framed with meanders, spirals and other linear ornaments without beginning or ending. The vase, the rose and the heart do not surface undamaged. They once lived and it seems like their maker, like an archeologist, reports and speculates about that life. She studies a detail meticulously and looks for reflections of its context. The details teach one something about their entirety, in the same way as a glimpse of eternity can shine through in one single moment.

There is no human being to be seen, yet the artefact pre-eminently seems to deal with human concerns. Nor is a story being told, and yet the work narrates experiences, or better still: inner life experience. One could describe the works of art as portrets of a state of mind. The substance of the work, like its materials, has several layers. A cheerful one here, a sad one there. Tender here, aggressive there.

One could say that Myrthe Verdonk explores the skin of life. She is interested in this skin; in the outward appearance of things and what can be told from them. But she is also interested in what is concealed by this skin. What is underneath? What would it be like, to be able to see through it or if holes would appear in its surface?

Background

Myrthe Verdonk ( 1953 ) has studied textile art-design in Tilburg and monumental design/ painting at the Academy of fine arts in Breda.

Since 1982 she has been living and working in Amsterdam. In 1993 she became familiair with buddhism, which led to a study tour to India and Nepal. For her work she finds points of contact in both the eastern philosophy of life and in modern western traditions of painting.

‘Meditation’

In the series ‘Meditation’, Myrthe Verdonk has drawn inspiration from death masks.

The source of this inspiration is “Archiv der Gesichter”( Archive of Faces ); an exhibition of death masks in Museum ‘Schloss Moyland”in Kleef, Germany, in 1999. The death mask of Beethoven showed a face that was unrecognizable. No trace of his stern countenance. Instead, it was tender and vulnerable – as if in complete surrender.

Affinity and experience with Buddhism plays an important role in her work, especially where the inner peace and tranquillity of people in meditation is reflected in their faces.

The series ‘Meditation’is characterized by a special technique: embroidering. The technique emphasizes the theme transience; as soon as you pull out the thread, the face desintegrates. Myrthe Verdonk embroiders on transparent varnished paper. Often she will unthread some or all of the needle work. She may then have to reinforce the paper and she will continue her embroidery until she decides that the right atmosphere and intensity is there.