"Ronald Ophuis is one of the artists who, at the end of the twentieth century, has chosen to work in this introverted medium. Dog-gedly he persists in the search for a position which will endow his painting with a greater significance. Ophuis achieves this by placing the relation of painting to reality at the forefront of his practice. Besides a series of smaller paintings, in recent years Ophuis has painted five large canvases depicting a range of violent subject matter. Although these been exhibited in various places, at Stedelijk Bureau Amsterdam, all the 'five paintings about violence' will be exhibited together for the first time. These works, which were made between 1995 and 1997, present acts of physical, sexual and psychological violence. In these bleak canvases, in which a process of scraping away and building up paint leaves underlying layers filtering through the upper surface, Ophuis usually presents the violence in a highly direct and confrontational manner. In a few instances, as in the painting of three men in a shower, this violence is only implied, suggesting a deep underlying tension." [Via SMBA]

Labels: Ronald Ophuis

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