Edita Janković Hapavel
Muzej Grada ÐurđevcaThe Flow of Sensuality
Ronald A. Lindgreen is a Dutch artist who settled in Croatia, his second motherland and birth country of his mother.
Stopping in front of Ronald A. Lindgreen's paintings does not leave one indifferent, and there are several reasons for that. The recurring theme of his works is one, as is the way in which Lindgreen interprets that theme.
Living in a place surrounded by superb views on the hills of the Zagreb region, with his French wife Elsa, professor of Croatistics [sic], his artistic soul is offered plenty of opportunity for musing over his works. Although one could expect to find in his artistic expression the influence or mark of his grandfather Ronald Lindgreen (1916-1999), a significant Dutch painter, it is actually not the case, except for one of his grandfather's principles that is present in his artistic oeuvre:
Stopping in front of Ronald A. Lindgreen's paintings does not leave one indifferent, and there are several reasons for that. The recurring theme of his works is one, as is the way in which Lindgreen interprets that theme.
Living in a place surrounded by superb views on the hills of the Zagreb region, with his French wife Elsa, professor of Croatistics [sic], his artistic soul is offered plenty of opportunity for musing over his works. Although one could expect to find in his artistic expression the influence or mark of his grandfather Ronald Lindgreen (1916-1999), a significant Dutch painter, it is actually not the case, except for one of his grandfather's principles that is present in his artistic oeuvre:
Edita Janković Hapavel
Art must speak, inspire, make an impression
What impression does the art of the young Lindgreen make?
Art cannot be static; just as life, it must be in movement, and it is driven by the person who creates it. We look for inspiration in the past, present and future. In the moment. True artists are always searching. Such is Lindgreen.
At the beginning of his artistic career, Lindgreen was first attracted to conceptualism. He started with writing and painting graffiti, before moving away from this art form. For over a decade, color and drawing have been at the center of his interest. We know that drawing is the primary medium of expression, which precedes any work of art.
The nude theme, as Lindgreen points out, gives him the opportunity to satisfy his passion for elemental forms line and color. As it happens, line and color have become the focus of his work in his oil paintings on canvas, as well as in a series of watercolor female portraits, with strongly delineated eyes, eyebrows, and lips.
Through the theme of the female nude, he can satisfy his investigative spirit, whose foundation lies on his affinity with the art of Matisse and Schiele. Just as in the fauvist paintings, his work is based on strong colors and strong outlines which delineate the female body, giving it a particular softness and sensuality.
His earlier nudes are more monumental, huskier, which he achieves through powerful outlines emphasizing the anatomy of the female body, often represented with oversized feet and hands. The recent ones, more bare, are descriptions, apart from the faces, the line glides without pause, outlining the round body parts of a female subject generally placed in an imaginary space, which adds to the expressivity. Everything is subordinated to the emphasized attributes of sexuality the breasts and the buttocks.
Deliberate, dreamy, sensual, erotic, melancholic, agog with the poetry of surrealism, they are drawn and painted by the hand of an artist behind whom powerful suggestive gestures are hiding.
The line swirls of the hands and feet, painted in surrealistic tones of pink and blue, give the paintings a plastic power and suggest the softness of a woman's attractive body. The sensual faces of Lindgreen's muses are reminiscent of those of Klimt, Modigliani, and Schiele.
May new experiences be the source of further artistic musings.
-- Edita Janković Hapavel,
Senior curator, Ðurđevac Art Museum, www.muzej-djurdjevac.hr
Translated into English by Elsa Lindgreen
+ Hrvatski
Fluidnost senzualnosti
Ronald A. Lindgreen, nizozemski umjetnik koji se udomaćio u Hrvatskoj kao svojoj drugoj domovini po majci.
Zaustavljanje pred slikama Ronalda A. Lindgreena neće nas ostaviti nimalo ravnodušnim. Više je razloga tome. Prvo je motiv slike i drugo način njezine interpretacije.
U svom životnonom okruženju, prekrasnih vizura obronaka nadomak Zagreba, uz suprugu Francuskinju Elsa, profesoricu kroatistike, svom slikarskom umu ostavlja dovoljno prostora za promišljanje svojih umjetničkih djela. Bilo bi za očekivati da će se u njegovom umjetničkom izričaju pronaći utjecaj ili trag njegova djeda, značajnog nizozemskog slikara (1916.-1999.) Ronalda Lindgreena, no to se nije desilo, osim prisutne djedove sintagme u njegovom umjetničkom stvaralaštvu:
Umjetnost treba govoriti, inspirirati, ostaviti dojam...
Kakav je to dojam koji nam ostavlja umjetnost Lindgreena mlađega?
Umjetnost ne smije biti statična, ona kao i život mora biti u pokretu, a pokreće ju onaj koji ju stvara. Inspiraciju tražimo u onom prošlom, u sadašnjem i budućem. U trenutku. Pravi umjetnici uvijek istražuju. Takav je Lindgreen.
U svom umjetničkom stvaralaštvu isprva je bio sklon konceptualnom. Bavio se crtanjem i slikanjem grafita, da bi kasnije učinio odmak od te umjetnosti. Već više od desetljeća, centar njegova interesa su boje i crtež. Znamo da je crtež osnovno izražajno sredstvo, bilješka koja prethodi svakom umjetničkom djelu.
Tema akta, kako ističe, daje mu mogućnost da zadovolji svoju strast prema elementima forme - liniji i boji. Upravo će ta linija i boja postati njegvim interesom kako u uljima na platnu, tako i kroz seriju akvarela ženskih portreta s naglašenim jakim obrisnim linijma očiju, obrva, usnica.
Upravo kroz temu akta ženskog tijela zadovoljit će svoj istraživački duh, u podlozi kojeg počiva naklonost umjetnosti Matissea i Schillea. Kao i kod fovista njegovo se slikarstvo temelji na snazi boje, jakim obrisnim linijama koje ocrtava žensko tijelo dajući mu posebnu mekoću, senzualnost.
Ranije nastali aktovi više su monumentalni, čvrsti što postiže snažnim konturama naglašavajuću anatomiju ženskog tijela., često puta s predimenzioniranim stopalima i rukama. Ovi kasniji, lišeni su deskripcije, osim glave, linija neprekinuto klizi ocrtavajući oble dijelove tijela najčešće jednog ženskog lika smještenog u imaginarnom prostoru kojim postiže još više ekspresivnost. Sve je podređeno lelujavim naglašenim atributima seksualnosti - grudi i stražnjice .
Odmjerene, sanjive, senzualne, erotične, sjetne, požudne s nadrealističkom poetikom nacrtane i naslikane su rukom umjetnika iza kojeg se kriju snažne sugestivne geste.
Kovitlaci linija ruku i nogu u nadrealnim bojama ružičastih i plavičastih tonova daju plastičnu snagu i osjećaj mekoće ženskog zavodljivog tijela. Promatrajući glave, senzualna lica Lindgreenovih muza prepoznat ćemo poglede Klimtovih, Mondiglianovih, Schilleovih.
Neka mu novi podražaji i iskustva budu ishodište za daljnja likovna promišljanja.
-- Edita Janković Hapavel,
Viša kustosica, Muzej Grada Ðurđevca, www.muzej-djurdjevac.hr