Saturday, December 27, 2008

Tjebbe Beekman-The Capsular Civilization












THE HAGUE.- The Gemeentemuseum presents the first ever major museum retrospective of work by Berlin-based artist Tjebbe Beekman (b. Leiden, 1972), who is well-known for his supercharged paintings of inner-city architecture. The exhibition covers the period between 2003 and the present, focusing principally on Beekman’s latest cycle of paintings and drawings, entitled The Capsular Civilization

The exhibition shows how earlier work by Tjebbe Beekman – who trained at the KABK in The Hague from 1993 to 1997 – led the way to his latest cycle. A typical example of this earlier work is Palast (2005), a painting based on the well-known Sozialpalast building in Berlin’s western district of Schöneberg. Beekman shows a number of floors of the dilapidated building, its rows of windows only occasionally interrupted by the circular shapes of satellite dishes. The handling of the paint gives the painting a lively, animated look, like big-city life itself.

Tjebbe Beekman employs a highly systematised creative process. First of all he uses photographs to make a collage, which he then uses as the basis on which to sketch out his composition. Next he lays the canvas on the floor and proceeds to apply a variety of gloss paints, gobs of oil paint, sand, string, and other waste materials. Lastly, he reconsiders the painting and paints over sections of it to give them greater emphasis and bring the final composition to life.

Although social criticism is present in his earlier work, it is far more prominent in the cycle of seventy sketches and five paintings entitled The Capsular Civilization. The title refers to that of a book by Lieven DeCauter, subtitled On the City in the Age of Fear. DeCauter’s main thesis is that the speed of contemporary technology and the ever more extreme polarisation of our society are forcing us to withdraw into the safe ‘capsules’ of our vehicles and architectural cocoons like shopping malls, gated communities and amusement parks. The seventy sketches, which can be regarded as illustrations accompanying the five paintings, constitute a picture atlas depicting ‘capsular phenomena’ of this kind and relating them to each other.

One of the most striking paintings in the cycle is Control Room, which shows innumerable blue screens casting their pale light into an otherwise almost entirely darkened room. You have to look carefully to see that there are human figures lurking behind the screens. This control room is keeping the whole outside world under surveillance but is itself entirely divorced from reality. In Beekman’s work, capsularization and control seem to breed a sense of isolation and lack of purpose, rather than the intended feeling of security. In pictures like this, Beekman conveys a not particularly rose-tinted view of the society in which we live.

order the catalogue here
Gemeente museum Gem Website

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Gagosian Gallery Cecily Brown


"I'm more interested in sublimation. I love the way Francis Bacon talked about the grin without the cat, the sensation without the boredom of its conveyance…I've always wanted to be able to convey figurative imagery in a kind of shorthand, to get it across in as direct a way as possible. I want there to be a human presence without having to depict it in full."

Cecily Brown

coming up!!!



at the 14th of december my solo show at the GEM museum The Hague.
Also presented then and for sale the new catalogue: Tjebbe Beekman-the image of the capsulated society.

GEM Museum modern art The Hague Holland

tip: print this jpeg and it´s a doorpass to join us at the opening party the 20th.

berlin gallery round










So finally i´m not so busy anymore and had some time to do a walk around and visit some of the way to many gallery´s here in Berlin.
I haven´t seen much but what i saw was damn good!
For starters go see the new works by David Schnell at Eigen+Art, his work has developed in an amazing way!
With very loose strikes and a very concentrated way of painting his new images are so terrifying good that I was jealous at the spot!

Go see!!!

Further on at the Max Hetzler gallery mister Jeff Koons, although i thought i wasn´t in for a round of kitsch, i must admit these works are great!
And as a surprise we saw a lot of new works by Sigmar Polke at Julius Werner.
Beautifull paintings with a very luxurious trick wich i wont tell you about, just take a look and see how clever made these works are.
At the Carlier/Gebauer there´s a movie by Rosa Barba also go see.

Tip in the middle of this walkabout stop at Sale et Tabaki for some authentic Italian espresso or a good lunch!
ciao

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Saturday, October 11, 2008

quick round berlin
















i´m very sorry but do not have the time at the moment to publish much on this blog lateley.
I´m prepairing for a show and it just takes up all my time so here a very quick incomplete updat of shows i´ve seen in berlin...

Sunday, September 07, 2008

QUO VADIS - AUTOCENTER, Berlin











Tjebbe Beekman, Marc Bijl, Leif Erich Christensen, Martin Dammann, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Paul Kooiker, Markus Selg, Jannis Varelas

Ritsaert ten Cate 1938-2008