Under the title Summa (Latin: sum total, a summary of what is known of a subject) Galerie Onrust shows recent work by Derk Thijs. After finishing his studies at Constantijn Huygens Academy, Kampen, he continued his education at both De Ateliers and Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He gained recognition mainly as a painter. Painted in a strong and expressionist style his works often showed images of a complete and coherent world. His search to give these a stronger physical presence led him to the medium of sculpture. The sculptures are constructions that look as though his paintings have taken one step from the wall into the same space and time the viewer is in. These rather two dimensional , fragile structures are assembled from materials such as wire, pieces of wood, paper and paint. They have enigmatic titles like Kaleidoscope, Liturgical Object, Braken Clock/Time Machine and Black Summa.
"The main part of this exhibition are sculptures. The paintings I made before often referred to a complete and coherent world. I still value the idea of depicting this, but more and more, I felt that this representation of something highly hypothetical and idealistic needed the counterweight of a stronger physical presence. The search for this resulted in more or less round, rather two-dimensional sculptures. Some of them are open structures, in which I enjoyed the absence of having to deal with the classical painterly problem of background. Another joy was the discovery of the intrinsic value that some materials like eggs or peanuts have.
I think these sculptures can be seen as paintings that merge with their immediate surrounding. As if they stepped one step from the wall into the same space and time that we are in. For me they still deal with the same content as my paintings. Creating a circle almost feels like an ethical act: it is the realization of the believe that everything belongs together and is part of something bigger, despite of all kinds of opposites. Some of the sculptures are like signs or symbols. They just display this realization of something round. Like other signs, they are something between a question and an appeal for commitment.
I look at older things a lot. Art history is divided in analytic categories, but I feel that the things I like share something that is beyond analytic methods. I'm trying to produce things that make the limits between categories like modernism and primitivism, religious art and folk art less clear. The aim is universality without the negation of history. Canvas paintings are absent in this show, I think one of the problems I have with them , is that they are so connected with the story of western, post-renaissance art history. Maybe it is possible to embed it in a bigger story. The ambiguity of old versus new forms and looks in these works also aims to question the importance of actuality and the hasty discourse in art. I don't want to feel determined by the course of time. I prefer an art that feels like a liberation from that." - Derk Thijs, 2011
