Urbanisme

There is something special with this painting in the LAM museum. Can you guess why that is?

The reason is that it is the oldest painting now on display in the LAM, it was painted in 1930. How can you see its age?

The LAM museum mainly shows contemporary art. Do you think that a painting from 1930 belongs here? On the one hand you could say that it is almost 100 years old, so you can’t possibly say it’s contemporary. On the other hand you could claim that modern art was born at the end of the 19th century because of the invention of photography. Art didn’t need to depict real life anymore, a photograph was much quicker and more realistic. This meant artists could create new and modern art.

This painting was created by the Dutch painter Dirk Koning (1888 – 1978). Apart from a painter he was also an illustrator, aquarellist, graphic designer, horse carriage painter and a woodcarver.

Dirk married one of the most famous Dutch female painters of the 20th century. Her name was Louise Marie Louber, but she became known by the name Lou Loeber. Her paintings were inspired by the abstract paintings of Piet Mondriaan.

Slapenden, Lou Loeber, 1974

 

 

Boote, Lou Loeber, 1928

Zonnenbloemen, Lou Loeber, 1928

Right across the room there is another painting inspired by Mondriaan. Can you see which one?

 

It is the painting ‘OlieBolly! OlieBolly!’ by Evelyn Taocheng Wang. She was inspired by the Netherlands and painted the typical dutch Oliebol snack in the colours of one of the most famous Dutch painters of all time.

While Lou made her abstract paintings, Dirk painted very differently. Much more classical still lives. But it seems as if he painted this one for his beloved wife. The bottle still has some depth to it, but the table and the background look more like the ‘flat’ colours of Lou.

The book was also painted for his wife. Urbanism was a book by the famous French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who Lou admired greatly. The original cover of the book was brown and simple, so to please Lou even more, Dirk painted it in the style and the colours of Lou he paintings.

Not only does this painting connects to Lou Loeber. It is also kind of connected to the paintings next to it. It’s style is sort of in between Italian Still live by Fons Haagmans and Carnage 3 by Till Rabus.

Fons Haagmans uses thick layers to paint the still life as ‘flat’ as possible. Till Rabus does the opposite. He uses very fine paint to try to depict the subject as realistic and with as much depth as possible.

Dirk is kind of in the middle; he paints some flat areas and a bit of depth.