Martin de Jong loves cities. The bigger the better. It’s not just the visual stimuli, it’s also the physical confrontation. New York takes the cake and it is no surprise that some of De Jong’s best paintings are inspired by that city.

However, something new has presented itself. After the death of his father he came into possession of tools for woodworking. He saw it as an opportunity to reduce the distance he had felt between himself – the artist – and his father – a man of craft and tradition. He was going to make wooden cityscapes.

Clear contours with some sawn perspective lines, some windows here and there, little to no color. A drawing in fact, with an unsteady hand, but at the same time also an object, material and solid. He liked it, that remarkable tension between two and three dimensions, between the illusion of the representation and the reality of the wooden object.

Although the objects undeniably refer to buildings, there is no longer a truthful portrait of the city. The resistance he encounters from both the tools and the wood steers the work of art away from its original starting point. But what can only be called a lack of technical skill does lead to the artist himself being surprised by the outcome of his actions. Something arises that he could never have imagined. The paradox is that he mastered every problem with paint and brush, but now feels much freer without his familiar materials and tools.

With his latest experiment, the inveterate artist distances himself further from the traditional cityscape in order to get closer to his subject in a different, less conventional way.

Feico Hoekstra ( summary from the ‘ARK’ edition )

Exhibitions

2023

POP-UP expo Frederiksoord 1, 2 en 3 dec.

Peter Ter Braak Groningen 8 t/m 28 oktober

Art Noord5 Belvedere Museum Oranjewoud bij Peter ter Braak 28sept t/m 1 okt

Alta Bosca Gorredijk ‘ARK’ 18 juni t/m 9 juli

Open Studio days Frederiksoord 14, 15 en 16 juli

2022

KunstRai Amsterdam Popinnart 13 april t/m 18 april

NoordNU Frederiksoord 16 juni t/m 3 juli.

Kunstzaal van Heijningen Den Haag 2 september t/m 2 oktober

Alta Bosca Gorredijk 24 december t/m 1 januari

2021

Melklokaal Heerenveen ‘Seven year it(ch)!’. 7 nov. t/m 12 dec. 2021

Art The Hague Popinnart 29 september t/m 3 oktober

Underground expo “Popinnart at Museumkwartier” Amsterdam 11 en 12 September

Open Studio Frederiksoord 7 augustus

Melklokaal Heerenveen “Transition” 6 juni t/m 11 juli.

2020

Open Sudio Days Frederiksoord: 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 en 16 augustus

The art collective Popinnart corona proof exhibition Amsterdam canceled

Kunstzaal van Heijningen Den Haag november canceled