In the context of the exhibitions of JCJ Vanderheyden (NL, 1928-2012) and André Stempfel (FR, 1930) at TMH, this talk encourages a discussion of contemporary painting from the perspective of the two artists of the same generation, from the Netherlands and France respectively.
Open conversation with curator and librarian Aloys van den Berk, art historian and gallerist Fred Wagemans, and Founder of TMH Marsha Plotnitsky. We invite everyone to join with questions and contribute to the discussion.
About the artists:
The idiosyncratic play of classical painterly materials and abstract properties in their work creates surprising material/immaterial representational fields, be it from a different creative impulse. By involving photography and video, Vanderheyden claims the need of painting to reach out to and capture fragments of the external, ecological space. Stempfel, on the other hand, focuses inwardly (often ironically) on the economy of his chosen means and forms for their emotional, baroque impact.
The innovations that they bring to painting become prescient, the passage of time notwithstanding. The span of their practices—Vanderheyden, born in 1928, was active till 2012, and Stempfel, born in 1930, continues to work prolifically—dovetails with developments in contemporary art from the 1960s and even touches upon the recent explosion in AI image-generation. As a result, the two parallel shows create an opportunity for a deep reflection on painting and contemporary art more generally.
