SUBLIMINAL

Poen de Wijs

Poen de Wijs (Dutch artist) 1948 – 2014
Het Blauwe Venster (The Blue Window), 1988
watercolour marouflé
50 x 60 cm.
signed Poen de Wijs
private collection

".......... What characterizes my work, what I strive for in my images is, in a sense, a concealment of the nude, to give it a twist that mystifies, makes it more poetic. You can also see that the way I paint the skin, never literally a freckle or a scar or a little bubble. The nude is also concealed by the skin, I find that very exciting. So I leave room for the viewer, but also for myself. Room for imagination. A game of concealments and mystifications. I think that is one of the characteristics of life. In this my work differs also from erotic photography.
I do think this is the task of the painter. You should do something in which an image appears to be more interesting than the reality. Therefore, the photos of my models are really uninteresting and non-erotic, real studies. If I plainly were to paint my intentions it would become a very boring picture. I must have it from omissions, the blurs, the double beds and that kind of stuff. These create space. At least I hope ... When a few weeks or months later a buyer tells me a story about my painting, I think, wonderful! It's not my story, but that doesn’t matter. Apparently I’ve been able to stimulate his imagination. ..........."

Text Gerard Kerkvliet, from Playboy interview - February 1987