Yuk Kan Yeung & Margré Steensma the scholar’s rock | working period
July 13 - September 10, 2025
Omslag: Yuk Kan Yeung & Margré Steensma | the scholar’s rock | 24/07/’25
Yuk Kan Yeung & Margré Steensma
the scholar’s rock | working period
July 13 - September 10, 2025
content
working period
opening
tentoonstelling / exhibition
werken / works
artist talk – tekst / text Giel Louws
colofon / colophon
ruimteCAESUUR
15/07/’25
24/07/’25
25/07/’25
tentoonstelling
| exposition
werken / works
method to me. I initially come up with two names; Morandi and Rothko. I think of Morandi when it comes to the aspects of stillness, and when it comes to equal importance of form and counter-form. The object being painted only matters as a source to start painting. I recently saw Hamza Halloubi's video on Morandi at De Pont Tilburg, where he showed that Morandi painted silence while the world was on fire. I was reminded of that in Caesura too.
I was reminded of Rothko for the shapes that seem to float in space as if they are not attached to the world. I was also reminded of Rothko's idea that he saw his colour surfaces as actors in the theatre of his canvas. I see this with Servi my-self,
myself, his forms set an archetype like Greek actors, but at the same time are in motion, ungraspable. Thereby, Rothko was also a teacher at the academy, and I think teaching is as much teaching as it is giving.
Anyway, these days, if you want to know something about an artist you go googling. Because in a brief viewing history of Servi's work, you would quickly assume that he has always painted like this. I saw that there was an issue of the William Wauters gallery, and ordered it online. I'm glad I did, because the work in there reveals something about where Servi is coming from. It also shows that he has found his own handwriting through consistent work. Perhaps it also shows
haps it also shows something of a universal quest we all go through. From a kind of certainties and bravado in one's youth, to not knowing and seeking adulthood. From the more bold statements to the “maybe”, or “it could be that”. That might explain why Servi takes away paint as much as he puts on paint.
The point that perhaps bothered me most; what is the work actually about. A ques-tion that strikes back at me as much as it is about the work. As if a painting must necessarily be about something other than itself. Isn't Servi, on the contrary, always referring to the form that is not the object itself? Perhaps it is not about the disputed third object, and not about its counterform, but about something in between? Is it about the silence and
something in between? Is it about the silence and that colour that resonates beyond the work itself? Is it about the resonance it creates in the viewer?
Servi's spatial objects surprised me, and conquered me immediately. I don't know exactly why but they seem to be closer to play for me. Very directly also address the question of form and not form. They allow more of the creator's hand, and therefore I can step in more easily. This, too, naturally resonates my own view, and one of my starting points; that once in a while you have to go and do something you can't do. That that's where the discoveries lie, in not being able to.
This could also be one of my questions, can't you paint that too well? A question
can't you paint that too well? A question you can't really ask, but if you write it down you can read it out loud, as if you can't do anything about it. I think the teacher Servi himself must have asked these difficult questions of his students, so I am sure he will forgive me.
Let's talk.
colophon | ruimteCAESUUR
All works | Servi van Grinsven
Photos exhibition | Servi van Grinsven
Photos artworks | courtesy of ©2024 Servi van Grinsven
Photos opening / artist talk | hans overvliet
Moderator artist talk | Giel Louws
Catalogue | hans overvliet
Thanks to | all the artists the happy shareholders of CAESUUR the municipality of Middelburg
Since 1995, some hundred twenty plus exhibitions of contemporary art have been made in ruimteCAESUUR (spaceCAESUUR). From 1999 on at the Lange Noordstraat 67 in Middelburg.
Visual arts, in relation with the contemporary art discourse, are always the guiding principle for an exhibition, but a historical and social perspective also determine our choices.
ruimteCAESUUR stands for the autonomy of art embedded in larger systems, and puts the artist’s oeuvre at the center of organizing its (solo) exhibitions. Young, novice as well as "arrived" artists are offered a platform in order to present their work in a noncommercial environment.
Real meeting and learning from each other play important roles within our annual planning.
ruimteCAESUUR is a private initiative, without any profit motive, with Willy van Houtum and visual artist Hans Overvliet as its core; they form the board of the CAESUUR foundation.
teamCAESUUR is more than completed by the artists Jorieke Rottier and Giel Louws.
The exhibitions also in 2024 will be organized as much as possible in cooperation with art initiatives from other countries such as Lípa Art Collection and Luxfer Open Space, both from the Czech Republic, Gallery Durden and Ray uit Los Angeles, U.S.A., Slipvillan from Sweden, etc.
Exchange with Dutch artists ensures reciprocity in this process.
The unique composition of this team crosses borders of art practices, gender and generations.
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Would you like to visit us? Please mail us at caesuur (at) zeelandet.nl.
Yuk Kan Yeung & Margré Steensma
the scholar’s rock | working period
July 13 - September 10, 2025