Purgatory

Johannes Hendrikus (Hans) BLEKKINK (Lichtenvoorde 1953) Education: HTS and AKI In Hans Blekkink's work, emotion, reason and irony come together. They have grown into a synthesis and come to define his personal handwriting. In his graphics, he is guided by automatic handwriting but in his three-dimensional work, the elaboration of a thought gets more space. For as long as Blekkink has been involved in visual art, he has also clung to the art of putting things into perspective. This leads to crazy finds such as Snow Sculptures at the Centraal Museum, which were soon diluted. Blekkink expresses himself in various techniques. Most work arises from spontaneous thoughts that he reduces to their essence, their primal force. The ever-changing techniques are expressive. He has a strong sense of stylisation. Despite the various disciplines, the entire oeuvre is recognisable by its personal irony. It is just barely wild, neither conceptual nor purely abstract. 'For,' he says, 'art does not exist, yours truly does.' Concepts like death and life, joie de vivre, dying and finitude recur regularly. From that realisation comes a tremendous drive, which is one of the reasons he does not want to limit himself in material, technique or working method. Hans Blekink has various exhibitions and publications to his name. Comes from the collection of the municipality of The Hague, The Netherlands.