Still celebrating….
The big party of 25 years WonderWood took place last November at the PAN with the presentation of the book WW 25. Both the fair and the book were a great success. But the party will continue with a special presentation at the upcoming KunstRai from April 30th to May 4th in Amsterdam.
WonderWood brings a special duo presentation with old and new work by Klaas Gubbels and Jeroen Henneman, trompe-l’oeil objects by Antonius Driessens and papier-mâché reliefs from the Egmondatelier.
Gubbels and Henneman have a lot in common: including the recognisability of their work, versatility in materials and their expressive visual language (kettles, tables, fish bowls, boxes, lamps), and oh yes, and both started as ‘lakschrijvers’.
Much has been said and written about his kettles and tables, including by Gubbels himself.
‘If you have something to say, you repeat it, if you have nothing to say, you always look for something else.’
K. Schippers speaks about ‘het ongelijke van hetzelfde’ in the work of Klaas Gubbels and Cherry Duyns compares Gubbels’ work with the sea: ‘Always the same, but always different’.
Simple forms, the power of simplicity, his curiosity, humour and experimentation are characteristic of Henneman’s work. His well-known standing drawings are a beautiful and striking example of this.
‘The lines and drawings on spotless paper sometimes seemed to float in space in my mind. Then I thought: If I saw those lines out of wooden sheet material, each line separately and then connect them again, then the drawing can stand upright, but now in space. The paper is then no longer the carrier of the lines, but the space.’
His trompe-l’oeil (deceive the eye) objects are often made of centuries-old wood, originating from dilapidated and abandoned castles. These spectacular, magical wall sculptures suggest that they are three-dimensional, but are flat, two-dimensional. As a metaphor, Driessens compares wood to human skin: living material and living beings. Both endure time and, as time passes, develop scars, scratches and cracks.
Jaap Egmond (1913-1997), a colleague of Jan Schoonhoven, approached his reliefs rationally and mathematically and left behind several notebooks in squared paper with drawings about light and shadow, among other things. His three sons Maarten, Toon and Jaap junior (now also in their seventies!) helped their father with the execution of his papier-mâché reliefs, a time-consuming activity and therefore know the process like no other.
They now make a few magnificent reliefs every year from their father’s unexecuted work (only one single piece per drawing) under the appropriate name Egmondatelier.
For information about KunstRai 2025:
info@ wonderwood.nl
WonderWood, Wiet Hekking
Rusland 3, 1012 CK Amsterdam
06-51382202
www.wonderwood.nl