Added Jul 8, 2005
“ Speechless “ might be a better way to describe the viewer’s reaction to Andre van der Kerkhoff’s latest exhibition.
“ Without Words, “ which will be opened by Janice McCulloch, editor of Art Almanac, at Marlene Antico Fine Arts on 11 September 2002. The Austrian born artist, almost a recluse, seems to have become a middle-aged enfant terrible in that he refuses to be diverted from his ambition to use his canvasses as a testament to his dissatisfaction with society – with our collective de-sensitisation to current events and our lack of independent thought and deed concerning social morality.
Confrontational and sometimes shocking, “Without Words “ presents a series of controversial images dealing with equally controversial and sometimes disturbing subject matter: September 11, Racism, Sexual Molestation within the Church, Global Commercial Control by a few big Brands, and the Banality and Conditioning of Society, to name a few. Andre is unrepentant that his works are provocative:
“ As I watched LIVE the images of commercial jets being flown into the Icons of Western Virility, a dictum by Franz Grillparzer came into my mind: ‘ The road of modern culture leads from humanitarianism via nationalism to bestiality.’
Since then my focus towards the visual arts as a vehicle to produce petty, pretty pictures for pretty, petty walls has changed into my wish to communicate with the public a different perspective to the media’s propagandised truth, as in today’s ambiguity the truth is bilingual.
Having lived in three different countries whose social and political fabric has been woven throughout the ages from very different historic yarns, I evolved and learned through time and betrayal that only humanism has relevance.
To quote Stefan Zweig, ‘Our greatest debt of gratitude is to those who in these inhuman times confirm the human in us, who encourages us not to abandon our unique and imperishable possession: our innermost self.’ “
The exhibition derives from Andre’s youngest years and from the guilt that he openly acknowledges stems from his familial ‘ Cultural Cringe ‘ being an Austrian with a grandfather who was in the SS. Is this Andre’s own attempt at atonement for the collective sins of his fathers? He doesn’t argue the point. He does lay claim, however, to the rare altruism of his intent. One simply cannot view Without Words without an intuitive personal reaction. This is not an artist or an exhibition that will tolerate a ‘ party line ‘ response.
Andre cleverly incorporates street signs in his compositions as symbolic signposts that warm the viewer about problematic elements in our society. As one wanders along the path of life, struck by such indicators, does one ignore the, acknowledge them or actively try to do something about them?
The paintings are executed in mixed media, with oils, oil sticks, pencils and pastels. They show a finesse and delicacy in treatment, which serves to dramatise the subject matter even further. Andre treads on difficult and dangerous ground. Fortunately for the artist and the viewer it works. The paintings are masterfully and cleverly executed, deeply allegorical, evocative and challenging.