Colorfield
— Flags for new Nations
In 1966 I received a grant for the Art Students’ League in the class of Larry Poons in New York. Instead of abstract expressionism in impasto oil paint I came across Colour field painting in large areas of colour in acrylic paint on unprimed canvas.
The painting surface was velvet soft and transparent and often evoked a certain stillness (and spirituality). Great models were Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis. The incredible colour combinations and the knowledge of the interaction of tints and shades I saw in the work of my fellow students too apparently came from Josef Albers (Bauhaus). Their abstract colour bands became ‘flags of new nations’ in my interpretation, like my undulating Sad Flag in indigo blue and purple, and also my wavy curtains in silkscreen print referring to relationships (among people) or just a washing line were less abstract to me.
After New York I participated in a sculpture class at the campus of Berkeley (Cal.) winter ’67, in a lively flower power atmosphere and then I returned to Holland. Suddenly I belonged to the avant garde and my work was shown as one of the official exhibitors from Holland at the 2e Biennale Internationale de l’estampe in Paris (1970) and with ‘Dutch Graphics’ in the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard university, Cambridge(Mass) (1970). The exhibition was intended to give an impression of contemporary Dutch Graphics. In addition to acrylic painting I had taught myself silkscreen printing, because the even smooth surface of matte printing ink and the sharp contours fitted so well as an alternative for the colourfield paintings.