Pairings – Paarungen: Dieter Mammel

paintings, drawings   

Ronald Versloot

paintings

1 – 29 September 2013

In his parental home Dieter Mammel (1965) recently discovered a collection
of childhood drawings in which he had carefully depicted his daily environment: woods, animals and people. Confronted with the perception from his childhood he decided to couple these drawings to his current work and thus to reassess his art.

For instance a realistic drawing of a forest is combined with
an abstract composition of verticals and horizontals, or two shepherd dogs with round Pluto noses are paired with a painting of a woman and a dog that are partly covered by two black circles. With this tribute to his youth drawings Dieter Mammel gives an insight into his art and at the same time acknowledges that an important part of our identity is formed during childhood.

The past also plays a part in Ronald Versloot’s (1964) work, he paints over existing works but keeps part of the old image intact at the edges. The old image is thus kept partly visible, almost as a metaphor for the artistic practice in which the artist depends on the past but has to move onward to invent new images.

The central form is often no more than a blot of paint that Ronald Versloot articulates and brings to life with a small linoprint or brushstoke. A stain of colour changes into a sculpture, a pointed form into a distiller nozzle, a cloud into a face with a mouth. We are thus made aware of the hidden meaning of forms that are caught and brought alive by the artist.