Hendrik Duijn - Fragments of compassion

Hendrik on his sources: ‘I get my inspiration from the operas of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Samuel Barber and Gustav Mahler, and from writers like Ludwig Wittgenstein, Marcel Proust and Robert Musil. 'Does everything that we do not notice make an impression of unremarkability? Does the ordinary always make the impression of ordinariness on us?' L.W'.

My searches are about the values and meaning of life and about topics that concern the human deficit, as in Richard Strauss's opera ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’, or that language cannot express what is most essential in life, according to Hugo van Hofmannsthal.  ‘How dark is the foundation on which our life rests’ Gustav Mahler.

My favourite painters : Matt Maris; Redon; Goya; Courbet; Gericault.

My visual quest for content, form, abstraction and materiality begins with the questions: What do I want, what can I do, what should I do, what can I do and what is it actually about? It is a constant questioning of my work. A constant interaction between form and content and the influence on each other in terms of colour, paint, materiality and the white surface that plays a role. The white surface that enhances the surroundings; The white surface, which makes the small spot more powerful; The white surface that shields something; The white surface that influences the frame; The white surface that enhances the spots that evoke a suggestion.

Hendrik Duijn 3 October 2024