MASCARADA | Poen de Wijs - Inicio

Poen de Wijs - Inicio



Poen de Wijs (Dutch artist) 1948 - 2014
Voorstudie Maskerade (Study for Masquerade), 2011
mixed media
50 x 65 cm.
signed Poen de Wijs
private collection

They have known each other from the moment that Fred, as a young boy, received drawing lessons from Poen's studio. There he learned life drawing, still life drawing, in charcoal and in watercolour; the basic exercises of the fine arts. "At that time Poen opened some creative shutters with me" Fred says about the drawing lessons. And Poen about Fred: "He was 13 years and all artistic impulses coming towards him must have made an impression on his young mind. My big house was filled with artists and musicians. It resonated with creativity." Fred knew then: "Working with so much passion, that’s what I want, too!" That he was to become a theatre maker was only forfilled in time!
When they met again after many years, a spontaneous plan arose, to make a series of paintings about Fred as a theatre maker. Poen had laid down many famous and lesser known artists, musicians, actors, dancers and clowns on the canvas (including the musical clown’s duo MINI and MAXI), but a theatre maker, working with puppets and masks, which is much more than just an actor, that was new to him.
Once Poen began with the development of the spontaneous idea, a series of paintings about the theatre maker Fred Delfgaauw, he didn’t know to where that eventually would lead. He began a quest, in which he knew one thing in advance for sure: he didn’t want to make just a recording of the performances of Fred, but it should become a personal vision of Fred and his work.
And so a year followed with visiting shows, movies, clips and watching old photographs, reviews, articles and reading books, talking with Fred and with people around him, to continue with sketches and doodles, with studies of facial expressions, with some photo sessions, with preliminary studies to finally paint twenty works on canvas. All this led to two exhibitions in the ‘Gorcums Museum’ and in Gallery ‘De Twee Pauwen’ in The Hague, and was captured in the documentary film "Moments" by John Vijlbrief and in a catalogue.

Text: press release for exhibition "MOMENTS"
Fred Delfgaauw 30 years theatre maker painted by Poen de Wijs