Wim Snelders — Cornwall Reflections — 2015

WIM SNELDERS

CORNWALL

REFLECTIONS 2015

BET WEEN ABSTRACTION AND FIGURATION

Besides his successful career as an architect, planner and urban developer the Dutchman Wim Snelders has been painting and drawing for more than 30 years.

Urban areas, undulating land and townscapes are his favourite subjects. Most of the work has been produced outside The Netherlands. In 2012 he went on a walking trip along the coasts of Cornwall, this resulted in a new series of works.

In these paintings, collages and drawings the coastal landscape of Cornwall forms the central element.

Right from his first paintings Snelders concentrated on the landscape as his subject. Whilst painting he looked at how the landscape was arranged. Which rhythms and structures you can depict?

How do the sightlines perform and which movement in the landscape is noticeable? He himself says about this: “I use my architect’s eye to look at a landscape or a town and then look for the (urban) plan which initially formed the foundation.

You may ask yourself which parts are

attractive and powerful enough to work out.” He often paints from photographs or quick sketches in which he has already outlined the proportions within the subject. This sometimes results in paintings with beautifully spread out, abstract shapes and forms. However, you also recognize the figurative elements such as sightlines of rows of terraced houses or the rhythmic pattern of boats moored alongside each other.

During his stay in Curaçao and Indonesia in the eighties, where Snelders worked as an architect and planner, he painted colourful abstract land and townscapes. Not till later on did he develop the urge to paint in a more figurative manner as well as finding out how recognizable the landscape could be without losing its abstraction. Snelders is inspired by the almost abstract landscapes made by the French painter Nicolas de Staël as well as by the fascinating, linear patterns through which the English painter Ben Nicholson reveals structure and interpretation in his work (Nicholson lived and

2

worked in Cornwall from 1939-1958).

In particular in Nicholson’s drawings you see a free hand, but at the same time you see lose forms going through the image, developing a kind of abstraction. In his Cornwall series of works, Snelders, just like Nicholson, looks for the intriguing balance between figuration and abstraction.

In 2012 Snelders and his two sons walked along the West coast of Cornwall from Padstow to Boscastle. Along the South coast he went on long walks around Land’s End and visited the beautiful towns of Fowey and Polperro. The rocky coast appeared majestically to him: with steep black graphite indentations onto which the sea pounds aggressively. The difference between low and high tide can be meters, the bays can be beautifully coloured and the sandy beaches extensive. At low tide the still wet beach and the sky above turn into one, making it seem you can walk into the sky and that you will find, just behind the rugged coastline, a cultured

3

hinterland with dry-stone walled meadows and fields, says, according to Snelders, something about the centuries-old character of the Cornish landscape.

Wim Snelders made around thirty works for the exhibition at CIRCLE Contemporary (Wadebridge), including paintings, various sketches and pencil drawings in which he delved deeper into the subject. The collages Snelders is showing are more abstract, they stand out for themselves and, for Snelders, the composition is of great importance.

Whatever he produces and in whichever medium he works, every piece is an interpretation of his continuing fascination with Cornwall’s phenomenal coastal landscape.

Etienne Boileau Journalist and Author

CORNISH LIGHT

A PERSONAL NOTE

More than 40 years ago I was on a family holiday in Port Isaac, Cornwall.

Even then the massive seascapes, the enclosed landscapes and scattered houses in the intimate villages impressed me and I found this landscape quite similar to the undulating landscape of the south of The Netherlands where we lived at the time.

It wasn’t till 2012 when I revisited Cornwall and went on a walking trip with my two sons along the West and South Coasts. It surprised me to see that little had changed: small scale cut-in roads, the ecology of the county and houses arranged into small villages or harbour towns, protected by dams, doors or other specific civil works, had remained untouched.

I was once again struck by the atmosphere, light and colour settings. Back in The Netherlands, I worked out my sketches and photos made during our walking trips along the coasts and rolling hinterland. It resulted in a series of drawings and paintings.

Using a minimum palette of colours in my first series of small paintings of Cornwall, I tried to catch the light and atmosphere. I further studied subjects such as a coastline, country road or just a single house to show the greatness of the open seaside, the patchwork of the hinterland and the intimacy of the townscape.

4

Some of these small paintings I worked out to a larger scale. By doing so I put more emphasis on the greatness of the Cornish light at the seaside or the typical country roads. Whilst at sea the light culminates into a vast brightness and sticks everything together, in the hinterland it composes a symphony of mystical tones.

As an urban and regional planner, designing neighbourhoods and their surroundings, I was inspired by Ben Nicholson’s drawings. This resulted in a series of pen and ink drawings in which lines and surfaces become more and more independent entities forming new compositions.

5

Nicolas de StaÍl, who revealed the Mediterranean character which is so similar to the Cornish feeling, has inspired me for many years in taking more and more distance from the subject. I created a series of collages. The collages’ apparent simplicity of random placed planes and lines bound together in close harmony reveal new insights in the greater landscape. The collages served as a study for the Polperro and Padstow harbour paintings in which the abstract and the figurative are combined.

Wim Snelders

Using a minimal palette of colours Catching the light and atmospheres in typical Cornish perspectives Aiming at new insights

Cornwall â…Šâ…

6

Cornwall ⅩⅥ

8

Cornwall ⅩⅣ

9

Cornwall ⅩⅤ

Boscastle Ⅰ

10

11

Near Boscastle

Country Road Ⅰ

12

13

Country Road Ⅱ

Inspired by Ben Nicholson I turned the landscapes into new dimensions of lines and coloured fields Uniting the various components of the image

Polperro â…˘

14

Padstow â…Ą

16

17

Padstow Ⅰ

Polperro Ⅰ

Polperro Ⅱ

Boscastle Ⅱ

In my collages I deconstructed the landscapes into a new arrangement of form and colour

Polperro â…Ł

18

Polperro â…¤

20

Padstow Ⅲ

21

Polperro Ⅵ

My Cornish impressions consist of many layers of colour Exploring and taking more and more distance from the known Composing a symphony of new senses

Polperro â…Ś

22

Polperro Ⅷ

Polperro Ⅸ

24

25

Polperro â…Š

Polperro ⅩⅠ

26

27

Polperro ⅩⅡ

WORKS

PAGE TITLE

YEAR MATERIAL

SIZE

7

Cornwall ⅩⅠ

2013

acrylic on board

29 × 25 cm

8

Cornwall ⅩⅥ

2013

acrylic on board

28 × 36 cm

9

Cornwall ⅩⅣ Cornwall ⅩⅤ

2013 2013

acrylic on board acrylic on board

28 × 36 cm 28 × 36 cm

10

Boscastle Ⅰ

2014

acrylic on board

60 × 80 cm

11

Near Boscastle

2014

acrylic on board

60 × 80 cm

12

Country Road Ⅰ

2014

acrylic on canvas

80 × 85 cm

13

Country Road Ⅱ

2014

acrylic on canvas

80 × 85 cm

15

Polperro Ⅲ

2014

pencil and watercolor on paper

22 × 23 cm

16

Padstow Ⅱ

2014

pencil and watercolor on paper

22 × 23 cm

17

Padstow Ⅰ Polperro Ⅰ Polperro Ⅱ Boscastle Ⅱ

2014 2014 2014 2014

pencil and watercolor on paper pencil and watercolor on paper pencil and watercolor on paper pencil and watercolor on paper

22 × 23 cm 22 × 23 cm 22 × 23 cm 22 × 23 cm

19

Polperro Ⅳ

2014

collage

35 × 40 cm

20

Polperro Ⅴ

2014

collage

35 × 40 cm

21

Padstow Ⅲ Polperro Ⅵ

2014 2014

collage collage

35 × 40 cm 35 × 40 cm

23

Polperro Ⅶ

2014

acrylic on canvas

44 × 55 cm

24

Polperro Ⅷ Polperro Ⅸ

2015 2015

acrylic on canvas acrylic on canvas

44 × 55 cm 44 × 55 cm

25

Polperro Ⅹ

2015

acrylic on canvas

44 × 55 cm

26

Polperro ⅩⅠ

2015

acrylic on canvas

80 × 80 cm

27

Polperro ⅩⅡ

2015

acrylic on canvas

80 × 80 cm

28

29

PERSONAL HISTORY

I was educated as an architect and planner at the Eindhoven Technical University.

During my study I was influenced by the architecture of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn - both seeking new ways of organising space and construction as well as space and light. I also discovered that architecture and art are very much related which became clear to me in the transparency studies of Rowe and Slutzky.

In these studies emphasis was laid on the relation between the approach of space in the paintings of CĂŠzanne and Braque and the designs of the houses by Le Corbusier.

In my later work as an urban planner I worked out this idea of transparency in an application of organising the urban

space in three dimensions. This resulted in various publications and proposals for a multi layered town and infrastructure development in amongst others in Delft railway area and the Waal riverfront in Arnhem.

At the end of the seventies of the last century I started painting at the Psychopolis Art Academy in The Hague.

During this period I created abstractions and still lives inspired by the search for composition. Discussions in the atelier with Wil Bouthoorn, my teacher at that time, opened up new horizons. I explored stage settings in the atelier and perhaps this is when my fascination with De StaĂŤl began.

30

31

Composition in red, 1980 oil on paper, 70 x 74 cm

Still live Ⅰ, 1980 oil on paper, 75 x 50 cm

In the early eighties I lived in The Netherlands Antilles where I worked on new series of paintings inspired by the Caribbean light and the tropical coloursettings. Due to the nature of my job: the rehabilitation of Willemstad’s historic inner city on Curaçao, I became very familiar with the structures and atmosphere of the island. Together with Lucila and Verele Engels, directors of the Curaçao Museum, I had talks about my work, the relation to architecture and my search for expressing the essential aspects in my paintings. It was an upbeat for my exposition in the Curaçao Museum in 1984 and some other expositions on the island.

It was also during this stay that the Antillean expressionist writer Boeli van Leeuwen frequently visited our house.

He was impressed by my paintings and chose to use my painting Drydock, 1984, as a bookcover for his book ‘Schilden van Leem’.

Dry Dock, 1984 oil on paper, 52 x 40 cm private collection book cover Schilden van leem, 1985

32

33

Conscientesteeg, 1987 oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm private collection

Bajonetstraat, 1987 oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm private collection

Van Dijksteeg, 1987 oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm private collection

Kenepa Ⅲ, 1984 oil on board, 20 x 30 cm private collection

By the end of the eighties I moved to Indonesia where I made proposals for integrated urban infrastructure planning in medium sized cities on Java and Bali.

I experienced a different and natural colour spectrum of the landscape resulting from the reflection of the light in the paddy fields. This brought me to a series of sawa and paddy field paintings.

It wasn’t till 2002 when I put together a new series of paintings which were produced in Pietrasanta, near Carrara in Italy, the city where many famous sculptors have originated from. I made typical townscapes of Lucca and Sienna and it was at that time that I started working with a brush again instead of applying the paint with a palette knife. Also during this period I introduced figures in my paintings to express, in these townscapes, the sense and scale of urban space.

San Pedro Ⅴ, 1984 oil on canvas 91 x 91 cm private collection

34

35

Siena , 2001 acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

Lucca Ⅰ , 2001 acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

Arenys Ⅲ, 2003 acrylic on canvas, 85 x 90 cm

This series of enclosed Tuscan townscapes was followed by landscapes on a much larger scale and in a totally different colour palette. I produced these at the Summer Academy, Salzburg, which was run amongst others by Jacobo Borges. At the academy I worked out my sketches of a visit to Spain’s “fryingpan”, Murcia, and the wooded areas with enclosures of grass-lands and farms around the castle of Salzburg where my atelier was set up. The Spanish landscapes originate from photographs taken from the high speed train and given the idea of a flight over olive groves and sandy pale coloured fields.

Hallein Ⅳ, 2003 acrylic on canvas, 85 x 90 cm

36

Arenys Ⅳ, 2001 acrylic on canvas, 85 x 90 cm

During the last ten years I have been experimenting with other subjects such as portraits, models and still lives and using other techniques such as collages, watercolours and pen. This has widened my scope, thus resulting in a broader oeuvre.

37

Misterious house Ⅰ, 2001 acrylic on canvas, 85 x 90 cm

WIM SNELDERS

Wim Snelders (Maastricht, 8 October 1949) grew up in the undulating landscape of the Dutch province Limburg.

One of his first exhibitions was held in Curaçao in 1984, where he worked at the time as an architect on the renovation of the inner city of Willemstad. In the years to follow, he continued to exhibit on the island. Snelders took classes at the Vrije Academie in The Hague, the Wackers Academie in Amsterdam as well as various other institutions. In The Netherlands he exhibited at, amongst others, Kunsthuis 9, Leuvenheim (2003), Internationale Summerakademie für Bildende Kunst, Salzburg (2003),

Ziekenhuisgroep Twente, Hengelo (2004) and Galerie de Witte Kamer, Delden (2004). In 2005 he took part in an artists’ initiative at the Walls Art Space in Amsterdam. Four years later he exhibited at the beautiful church in Aerdt. In 2012 and 2013 he took part in an exhibition at the exhibition space Amstel 312, Amsterdam. Last year he was one of the participants taking part in a group exhibition at the Gooische Academie, Laren.

Wim Snelders’s work can be found in the Curaçaosch Museum Collection and the Chamber of Commerce, Curacao as well as in various private collections at home and abroad.

38

39

COLOPHON

This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exposition Boundless, Landscapes from the Edge at CIRCLE Contemporary, Wadebridge, Cornwall, UK 28 March – 25 April 2015 TEXT

Between the abstract and figurative © Etienne Boileau / Communart, Rotterdam, The Netherlands All other texts © Wim Snelders, Amstelveen, The Netherlands GRAPHIC DESIGN

Mattijs de Wit www.mattijsdewit.nl PHOTOGRAPHY

Wim Snelders, Marina Krijger WITH THANKS TO

Marina Krijger PRINTER

Drukkerij Raddraaier PAPER

Sirio Color Caffe 290 gr Revive 100 White Uncoated 120 gr Revive 100 Natural Uncoated 115 gr T YPEFACE

Circular, Lineto EDITION

100 © 2015, WIM SNELDERS, THE AUTHOR

www.wimsnelders.com ISBN

978–94–6228–601–6

40