Robine Clignett, Nour-Eddine Jarram, Erik Pape

 works on paper, drawings, watercolours

17 February – 10 March 2013

In her work on paper Robine Clignett (1948) uses natural shapes that are reduced to such an extent that they start functioning on an abstract level. A sloping, dark landscape, for instance, contrasts with a bright sky to produce a sweltering effect. In preliminary sketches an image evolves out of only a couple of lines or shades. Her point of departure is not always an observation of nature, but can also be a thought or a text. A pivotal role is set aside for the color that is highlighted from the background in her watercolor paintings, thus allowing it to subtly develop and come to live. In the exhibition a number of beautifully designed little books on color will be presented as well, that were published by Robine Clignett over the past few years.

In saturated colors Nour-Eddine Jarram (1956) draws landscapes in which human figures are hidden. During the process of drawing one shape evokes another, naturally integrating the emerging figures into the landscape that is presented in the image. Recently, references to painters such as Bellini and Füssli have started to turn up in Jarram’s work, translated into his signature, non-Western use of colors. Because of the use of pastels, the drawings have a soft, sometimes veiled appearance with the colors fading into one another.

Every year, Erik Pape (1942) makes on-the-spot sketches of the metro overpass at Place Stalingrad in Paris. In a plain A3 sketchbook he sketches the pillars and arches of the aboveground metro in watercolors. These are lively sketches containing movement; they have been drawn lightly and elegantly in a couple of strokes, while in other sketches the paint has been applied more intensely in heavier, broader patches. Recently Erik Pape began converting his sketchbook studies to 80 x 100 cm watercolor paintings. With the same straightforwardness these conjure up the dynamics and atmosphere of the square that has already been the subject of his paintings for so long.