The Dutch Royal Prize for Painting 2006 for Anneke Wilbrink
Now more than ever, the many-layered paintings of Anneke Wilbrink offer a unique visual spectacle. Perspective and viewing experiences vary with each painting, but the guts, the movement and the directness with which the perception of the landscape is transformed into art form a thread which is constantly stretched to its limit.
In her recent paintings, which share a common format, Wilbrink takes the viewer on an exciting voyage of discovery which includes exceptional revelations both in the realm of art and in the area of geography and landscape. Remarkable is the sophisticated integration of specific information in a complex system of lines and artistic actions.
Wilbrink’s paintings have become looser, more expressionistic and more daring. More than ever before, her work is positioned in the line of the tradition, while at the same time standing at a distance from it. The choice of subject snuggles comfortably up against the art historical tradition, but the style is so sparkling, so modern and so different, that old themes are given new dimensions and points of view.
This new richness is closely connected with the intuitive way of working, unusual colour sensations and the magic of vanishing points and junctions, but also with the curious feeling that you could disappear into the painting. The view is inescapably fixed, so that the viewer is sucked or parachuted into the show. Although the representation has an important role, in the end it is still overpowered by the artistic force.
An unprecedented energy is released in the paintings. Bird’s eye views, frontal approaches and helicopter views alternate with each other. Explosions of colour and paint betray the intuitive approach without there being arbitrary or coincidental effects. Every touch is well-chosen and every action contributes effectively to the greater whole. All this results in art for which the word “dynamic” falls short or sounds like an impudence.
Wim van der Beek
Kunstbeeld nr. 05 /2007