hendrik dijk
Artists Reviews
Grid stuff
by Kathi Norklun
Woodstock Times, 1997
When Hendrik Dijk flew back to his native Netherlands to see the Mondrian show there last January, it was to satisfy a passion for hard-edge abstraction that he had nursed since his student days. In recent years, he has returned to that original passion, and a number of Dijk's geometric abstract paintings are now on view at The Loft in Kingston. Hard-edge painting has been an active, if often marginalized, strain in modem painting ever since Piet Mondrian first reduced his horizon lines and verticals into flat squares and rectangles of color. Other progenitors include the Russian constructivists, and The Loft lists Dijk's work as "geometric constructivist paintings."
There's a lot more to the history of geometric abstraction in art, and Dijk references much of that history in his work. Renaissance use of geometry, for example, extended to more than just illusionistic perspective. The composition of Renaissance and subsequent neoclassical works was based on definite geometric arrangements within the placement of figures and the vectors of gestures. Dijk's work is all based on the grid, a postmodern conceit. Yet "Annunciation" clearly cites its art historical past. Concentric sets of squares continue to subdivide, so the center of the painting is one large square and the edge is a frame of tiny cubes. Dijk refers to these paintings as "frames"; one can easily imagine a lush stained-glass window implied by his elaborated grille.
Hard-edge painting usually leaves me cold, if respectful. But Dijk is a colorist, his works are emotional in tone, and his grids are painterly and lush within the constricted limits imposed by the painter. "Winter," a study for a larger work, is done completely in grisaille: but these aren't the plain, cold grays of neoclassical sketches. His frame, or grid, is cool, slate-blue grays, and behind it is a screen of warm grays, fading from light to dark across the painting surface. Warm recedes, cool advances; there are many subtle tricks and experi ments in these works. Another small study, "Monument," could easily be a study for a high-rise building, huge, blocked-in windows on a ground floor shrinking to mere specks of glass within concrete frames at the top. The gradual reduction of the inner square implies architectural perspec tive without actually portraying a building.
"After The War" is a remarkable painting.
The large canvas is divided into a grid of squares. Each square
is further divided and painted to obtain a trompe de 1'oeil effect of niches,
each off-kilter. Further adventure is provided by an implied light source that
illuminates variably the niche walls. And a thin, nearly obliterated edge of
orange keeps the dark recessed squares from falling too easily into
perspectival place.
by Kathi Norklun Woodstock Times, 1997
hendrik dijk
90 abeel street
kingston, ny
12401
(845) 339-0980