Gert Jan Veenstra (1959) – Clipper on the open sea Oil on canvas – Hand signed – 2005

Description

Gert Jan Veenstra (1959) – Clipper on the open sea
Oil on canvas – Hand signed – 2005
It is not surprising that there is great interest in the paintings of the Frisian artist Gert-Jan Veenstra (Workum, 1957) at home and abroad. His work fits into the realistic tradition of the old Dutch masters, who made Dutch painting world famous. But there’s more. Veenstra’s most important subject is the Dutch landscape. A theme that has inspired not only visual artists over the centuries. ‘What remains is landscape’ wrote the poet Ad Zuiderent, and his colleague Rutger Kopland said about it: ‘The landscape gives the illusion that time stands still, but that is an illusion. It is such an endlessly slow event that we cannot experience it. We are but momentary passers-by. As far as I’m concerned, poets have to make time visible, and indeed time becomes most visible in an attempt to make it stand still.’

On his canvases, Gert-Jan Veenstra freezes time. He shows us landscapes and cityscapes that were there before we came, and that will, hopefully, be there for a long time after us. Yet Veenstra’s paintings made with astonishing craftsmanship are by no means ‘painted photos’. They often show scenes that we could see with our own eyes, but what we saw would never match a painting by Veenstra. The artist interprets reality. A realistic interpretation, sure, but not a copy of it. The atmosphere that he manages to create in an inimitable way is unmistakably his atmosphere. His work, however realistic, is recognizable and irreplaceable as his.

What is it that makes Veenstra’s work so popular? The melancholy that many of his canvases evoke? The longing for the Arcadian silence that the artist almost manages to make visible? Something else? The question cannot, of course, be answered. Veenstra’s work – however accessible – does not reveal its secret. Like true art never reveals its secret.

Lot details
Title of artwork: Clipper on the open sea
Artist: Gert Jan Veenstra (1959)
Year: 2005
Technic: Oil on canvas
Signature: Hand signed
Offered with list; Yes

Stands: In very good condition
Image size: 50×70 cm
weight: 3 kg
Overall dimensions: 50×3×70 cm