Culture of Colors

Toon Verhoef (1946, The Netherlands) could be called an "artist's artist": a master who has been of great influence on his colleagues and the rising generation of painters. His work is nothing less than a watershed in Dutch painting. Where that quality exactly lies is not easy to articulate. It has been said of his overwhelmingly gorgeous paintings that in them, the visual has slipped the bonds of the nameable. His complex and layered work is open and lucid; it depicts the art of painting in its true essence - a lively interplay of paint, composition and colors. The result is one purely at the service of the imagination. It is this very work that forms the prelude to the Art Space, because looking well at art gives one of the ultimate mental, almost physical experience!

Bernard Frize (1949, France) is one of the best-known formal abstract painters of the moment. Painting itself is his subject. His quest is one into the nature and potential of his medium, techniques and materials. These two canvases, 'Apparition' and 'Vingthuit' occupy a prominent place within the AkzoNobel art collection as part of the theme 'Color and Research'. Underlying each of Frize's works is an idea and a way of working put at the service of experimentation: with the paint (and even its chemical composition), for example, or the type of brushes. What his work above all reveals is the physical process of creation, and his signature is subordinate to that: "Once I've decided how I want to go about my work, I take the result as it comes".

Alan Uglow (1941-2011, United Kingdom) works in the tradition of Piet Mondriaan and Barnett Newman. Every piece has its own harmonious composition, resulting from lines cutting across the surface, generating new spaces as they go. Every monochrome space is painted with a different brush or roller, all the while varying the direction of his brush strokes, leading to subtle nuances in how light is reflected. Uglow’s experience of the world – what he sees, touches and tastes – inspires him; the layout of a wanted ad, a news headline, a sound, and it’s this reality he transposes into shape and proportion. Working with great precision there is no coincidence in Uglow’s paintings. Everything is deliberate.

Bernard Frize (1949, France) is one of the best-known formal abstract painters of the moment. Painting itself is his subject. His quest is one into the nature and potential of his medium, techniques and materials. These two canvases, 'Apparition' and 'Vingthuit' occupy a prominent place within the AkzoNobel art collection as part of the theme 'Color and Research'. Underlying each of Frize's works is an idea and a way of working put at the service of experimentation: with the paint (and even its chemical composition), for example, or the type of brushes. What his work above all reveals is the physical process of creation, and his signature is subordinate to that: "Once I've decided how I want to go about my work, I take the result as it comes".

Schilder, beeldhouwer en fotograaf Imi Knoebel (1940, Dessau, Duitsland) is een invloedrijke Duitse kunstenaar die in de jaren 1960 in Düsseldorf bij Joseph Beuys studeerde. Hij ontwikkelde een eigen geometrisch abstracte beeldtaal, geïnspireerd door zowel de Amerikaanse minimal art als het werk van de Russische meester Kazimir Malevitsj, die tevens een belangrijk theoreticus was van het constructivisme.

Knoebel's distinctive constructions of his paintings layer and juxtapose grids of monochrome strips with planes of pure color. These modular components propose seemingly endless variations on the relationship of abstraction to geometry and form.

childer, beeldhouwer en fotograaf Imi Knoebel (1940, Dessau, Duitsland) is een invloedrijke Duitse kunstenaar die in de jaren 1960 in Düsseldorf bij Joseph Beuys studeerde. Hij ontwikkelde een eigen geometrisch abstracte beeldtaal, geïnspireerd door zowel de Amerikaanse minimal art als het werk van de Russische meester Kazimir Malevitsj, die tevens een belangrijk theoreticus was van het constructivisme.

Knoebel's distinctive constructions of his paintings layer and juxtapose grids of monochrome strips with planes of pure color. These modular components propose seemingly endless variations on the relationship of abstraction to geometry and form.

It is in some respects an unusual process that Ian Davenport (1966, London, UK) favors to create his work. Instead of applying paint to the surface using the traditional brush, Davenport uses less expected applicators such as syringes. Davenport lets the paint drip down from the needle onto an aluminum or stainless-steel panel, the bottom of which has been deliberately dented to allow rivulets of paint to converge and collect into pools of paint at the base of what becomes the painting. By using a syringe, Davenport is freed up to focus his energies more on the colors and the sequences in which they are applied, rather than on the paint and its flow.

To Rafaël Rozendaal (1980, the Netherlands) the internet is his canvas. Free from matter, Rozendaal’s work is intensely modern and unusually democratic. And yet, it relates directly to painting of centuries past; in his work too, abstraction is open to the viewer’s interpretation and modification, but his viewer exists anywhere there’s internet.
In 2013, Rozendaal started to work on a series of physical pieces. 24 layers of differently printed plastic result in saturated colors suggesting a depth in which changing patterns move in accordance with the viewer. To Rozendaal, color is never stable.

The painting tools of choice for Katharina Grosse (1961, Germany) are the application gun and the aerosol canister. There is no end of objects that she can put to service as media for her work: she uses canvases, strips of paper, walls, and ceilings, and even organic materials and large objects to paint on.

The key theme in Grosse’s oeuvre is investigating the extent of the painter’s art. Her work takes shape within a predetermined time schedule, obliging her to make quick decisions. Hence, the painting, the movement of colour, and the dynamic of the work are determined in the spontaneity of the moment.

The painting tools of choice for Katharina Grosse (1961, Germany) are the application gun and the aerosol canister. There is no end of objects that she can put to service as media for her work: she uses canvases, strips of paper, walls, and ceilings, and even organic materials and large objects to paint on.

The key theme in Grosse’s oeuvre is investigating the extent of the painter’s art. Her work takes shape within a predetermined time schedule, obliging her to make quick decisions. Hence, the painting, the movement of colour, and the dynamic of the work are determined in the spontaneity of the moment.

Prudencio Irazábal (1954, Spain) is known for his highly defined technique of abstract acrylic painting, characterized by a vast number of translucent layers added onto each other, finished by a polished mirror-like surface. The relation between surface and depth is vital for the understanding of his abstract images. Color, mediated by the transit of light through paper-thin layers, constitutes a unique perceptual experience. This merging of translucent layers shapes the incoming light but allows the eye to traverse through to the white canvas.

Yutaka Sone (1965, Japan) is a multifaceted artist using varied materials and techniques to produce his sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, videos and performances. A consistent theme in Sone’s oeuvre is his fascination for natural and architectural landscapes. He seeks out his subjects in real-life locations, whether on Hong Kong Island or a Los Angeles freeway, a mountain range, a rainforest or his own back garden. He recreates these scenes, in miniature, in various materials such as paint, marble and crystal, or using organic materials like plants and soil.

Large, colored canvases comprise Herbert Brandl's (1959, Austria) body of work, oscillating between abstraction and representation, often focusing on landscape imagery like mountain peaks, waterfalls, and fauna.
The landscape plays a dominant role in Brandl’s monumental works, although it is not always a landscape readily recognizable as such. Brandl’s paintings inhabit a space between figurative and abstract art. For Brandl, the essence of an artwork lies in the act of painting: in the materiality and colors of the paint. The familiar images and shapes that can be made out in Brandl’s work are not the artist’s actual subject.

Lin de Mol’s (1966, the Netherlands) work covers a wide range of media; photography, videos, drawings and installations and mostly stems from her many travels. It has a poetic feel and exudes a refined sensitivity to the tactile qualities of her photograph’s subjects.
De Mol pays a lot of attention to staging and editing her photos and videos. Mosstable, for instance, is a surreal image with a slumbering sense of transience: despite the childish desire to grasp and cling on to that moss bed, it is already dying its inevitable death. It is, in a sense, nature met and confronted.

Axel Hütte’s (1951, Germany) photographs are devoid of human life; no one sets foot in these grand, empty and barren landscapes. Sometimes, only nature is shown, elsewhere we are shown an urbanized landscape. A dune formation that dissolves into horizontal lines, a bamboo forest in which the vertical thrust predominates, treetops turning into abstract surfaces—Axel Hütte’s landscapes are more than snapshots. They are finely tuned compositions of a beauty belonging not to our, but an entirely different world.

Jacco Olivier (1972, the Netherlands) fuses painting and filmmaking by repeatedly reworking paintings and systematically photographing each development. The various stages are combined into projected animations. The resulting films are enigmatic and experiential—moving in and out of abstraction they reveal the traces and decisions made by the artist in the process of painting. The films are imagined as windows onto converging, and often elegantly simple, moments of daily life, containing, however, an uneasy tension, something insinuated, unexpected and beyond our control.

‘Untitled (Orange Moon)’ is William Monk’s (1977, United Kingdom) psychedelic homage to landscape painting, nature, the heavens and to color itself - which he uses masterfully and to riveting effect. The viewer’s eye is drawn through a multi-colored field - of grain perhaps - towards a (not only orange-colored) glowing moon. The pointillist-like style in which the field is rendered and Monk’s use of contrasting enhancing colors speak to his engagement with the painterly tradition of the avant-garde – most notably Van Gogh, who referred to orange as “the color of insanity” - and their experiments with color theory. However, Monk is not so easily categorized. “I camouflage the content of my paintings,” he says. “I want to be cryptic.” Cryptic as he may be, Monk’s work is mesmerizingly beautiful and infinitely strange.

Prudencio Irazábal (1954, Spain) staat bekend om de uitgesproken techniek die hij gebruikt om zijn abstracte schilderijen in acryl te vervaardigen, waarbij een groot aantal doorschijnende lagen over elkaar worden heen gelegd en afgewerkt met een gepolijst spiegelend oppervlak. De relatie tussen oppervlakte en diepte is vitaal voor het begrijpen van zijn abstracte beelden. Kleur, gemedieerd door het licht dat zich door de flinterdunne lagen werkt, geeft een unieke perceptieve ervaring. De samengevoegde doorschijnende lagen bepalen de lichtinval, maar laten de toeschouwer tegelijkertijd doorkijken tot aan het witte doek dat de basis vormt van het werk.

Dan Asher’s (1947-2010, United States) art practice includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and videos. Originally trained as a social anthropologist, he drew upon this background and his many journeys of discovery to form the basis of his oeuvre.
His iceberg photographs, taken during a South Pole expedition, document the awe-inspiring beauty of these behemoths. Although simple in form, these photographs are compelling in their imagery: a certain sense of distance pervades them, as if the artist had been pondering the icebergs for quite some time. The viewer of these photographs gains an overwhelming sense of the immensity of these mountains of the sea and of the variety of shades of blue that glint from them. The texture of the ice, and the compositional frames Asher has chosen, give his works remarkable layers.

With his work, Rob Johannesma (1970, the Netherlands) joins a tradition which originated in renaissance painting, that of the ‘atmospheric perspective’ landscape. His work makes no attempt to portray reality, but instead seeks to captivate and enchant the viewer’s gaze. And yet, now that a landscape untouched by human hands has become a rarity, we should remember to view his work with some caution. They are impressive images of ‘empty’ spaces where lonelyness and silence willfully persist.

Keith Edmier’s (1967, United States) work often comes from personal and cultural memories and Edmier is often inspired by nature. For Edmier, nature connects life, death and sexuality with the world around us. In his work he also investigates the way in which childhood and innocence are viewed from the perspective of an adult. The evocation of a fairy-tale fantasy world are elements that keep recurring in his artworks. Edmier makes use of the knowledge and experience that he gained when he made special effects for the American film industry. This also results in his preference for working with rubber and polyester.

The work of French photographer Charles Fréger (1975, France) consists of series of portraits of various groups: from majorettes, athletes and soldiers to people dressing up to re-enact ancient rituals. In his work, Fréger focuses mainly on how the youth of today presents and identifies in social context, through clothing and ostentation.

So too in the case of these confident young women, imaged from two works in the 'Seijishiki' series, the emphasis is on their outfit: an attire in which Orient and Occident, the traditional and the modern meet. Seijinshiki is the Japanese ceremony on the attainmet of adulthood. These women show their identity in a sophisticated mix of clothing and accessories, color and pose. The portrait cracks open the underlying cultural codes, sparkling and dignified.

'Homage to Marcel Duchamp: Aura (Pink Woman)' arises from the archive of aura photos by Susan Hiller (1940, United States). Aura photography, with its remarkable colors, was made possible by a technique from the 1970s that enables the artist to translate the electrical frequencies emitted by a person into visible images. The reference in the title to Marcel Duchamp, that master of idea-art, is based on a portrait he made in 1910 of his friend Dumouchel in which vibrant colors surge around the contours of his body. In addition, the series includes images not produced by Hiller herself, which she found and collected. The work of Susan Hiller has been described as para-conceptual; as an encounter between the world of the paranormal and conceptual art.

“The main message I want to convey with my work is the importance of observing magnificence in our surroundings,” says Amsterdam-based artist Elspeth Diederix (1971, Kenya). Diederix seeks to reveal the unique essence and beauty of natural phenomena and of commonplace objects that often go unnoticed. Plants and flowers from her studio garden ('The Studio Garden'), from her project ('A Miracle Garden') in the Erasmuspark - a municipal park in Amsterdam, organisms from the depths of Lake Grevelingen ('Still Life Submerged'), underwater landscapes ('Ultramarine'), and a wide array of seemingly mundane objects come to life in front of Diederix’ lens. Her jewel-like still lifes with their subtle play of light, color and texture remind us of the restorative beauty of nature and of our everyday surroundings. Diederix’ work forms a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life and a reminder of life’s bountiful beauty.

The work of French photographer Charles Fréger (1975, France) consists of series of portraits of various groups: from majorettes, athletes and soldiers to people dressing up to re-enact ancient rituals. In his work, Fréger focuses mainly on how the youth of today presents and identifies in social context, through clothing and ostentation.

So too in the case of these confident young women, imaged from two works in the 'Seijishiki' series, the emphasis is on their outfit: an attire in which Orient and Occident, the traditional and the modern meet. Seijinshiki is the Japanese ceremony on the attainmet of adulthood. These women show their identity in a sophisticated mix of clothing and accessories, color and pose. The portrait cracks open the underlying cultural codes, sparkling and dignified.

He is about to go on for war, she will mis him for sure, hence she quickly traces his shadow on the wall with a piece of charcoal. His remaining silhouette will remind her of him. In short, this is how according to Pliny The Elder (23-79 AD, in his Naturalis Historia, Book XXXV chapter 5), an important Roman writer, painting was invented. The theme of this story of “the origin of painting” was a popular theme around the eighteen hundreds. The work of Niek Hendrix is based upon one of those eponymous works, in this case one from 1832 by the relatively unknown German painter Eduard Daege (1805-1883).

In this work by Niek Hendrix the story of the silhouette returns, it is about remembrance of the other person, but also about remembrance of the image and the concept of the silhouette. How can a simple line represent someone? Because these panels literally go from light to dark it addresses also the history of art, from a blank canvas on which we project our image, to the deep dark shadow where abstract art does not represent factual objects anymore. Painting has always been about light and darkness en perhaps will continue to do so.

He is about to go on for war, she will mis him for sure, hence she quickly traces his shadow on the wall with a piece of charcoal. His remaining silhouette will remind her of him. In short, this is how according to Pliny The Elder (23-79 AD, in his Naturalis Historia, Book XXXV chapter 5), an important Roman writer, painting was invented. The theme of this story of “the origin of painting” was a popular theme around the eighteen hundreds. The work of Niek Hendrix is based upon one of those eponymous works, in this case one from 1832 by the relatively unknown German painter Eduard Daege (1805-1883).

In this work by Niek Hendrix the story of the silhouette returns, it is about remembrance of the other person, but also about remembrance of the image and the concept of the silhouette. How can a simple line represent someone? Because these panels literally go from light to dark it addresses also the history of art, from a blank canvas on which we project our image, to the deep dark shadow where abstract art does not represent factual objects anymore. Painting has always been about light and darkness en perhaps will continue to do so.

Shirin Neshat's (1957, Iran) monochrome photographs, powerful video installations and films contain not documentary material but rather a combination of reality and magic. Neshat uses a great deal of contrast in her work. The most immediate contrast is the use of black and white in her photography and video work, but there are more contrasts: the oppositions of man/woman, individual/society, and desolate/populous recur often.

Shirin Neshat's (1957, Iran) monochrome photographs, powerful video installations and films contain not documentary material but rather a combination of reality and magic. Neshat uses a great deal of contrast in her work. The most immediate contrast is the use of black and white in her photography and video work, but there are more contrasts: the oppositions of man/woman, individual/society, and desolate/populous recur often.

Monali Meher (1969, India) is interested in creating new identities and giving expression to the feeling of belonging somewhere (or not). In her work she plays the concepts of identity, diversity and time. It shows differences between cultural traditions and identities, and also unites them in one single image. Meher aims to depict cross-fertilisation between cultures, which she regards as complementary.

In two works included in AkzoNobel art collection, it is Monali Meher herself who is posing in traditional Indian attire in two exquisite showrooms of Dutch treasures. These works refer to the medieval hospitals that can still be found in many Dutch cities as well as to Indian augurs of prosperity and bearers of tradition, like the paithani, of India's finest saris with ingeniously woven peacock motifs.

Monali Meher (1969, India) is interested in creating new identities and giving expression to the feeling of belonging somewhere (or not). In her work she plays the concepts of identity, diversity and time. It shows differences between cultural traditions and identities, and also unites them in one single image. Meher aims to depict cross-fertilisation between cultures, which she regards as complementary.

In two works included in AkzoNobel art collection, it is Monali Meher herself who is posing in traditional Indian attire in two exquisite showrooms of Dutch treasures. These works refer to the medieval hospitals that can still be found in many Dutch cities as well as to Indian augurs of prosperity and bearers of tradition, like the paithani, of India's finest saris with ingeniously woven peacock motifs.

These photographs form part of 'The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection'. The Sonnenfeld Collection is a private archive of historical images of Israel in the twentieth century. Yael Bartana (1970, Israel) has re-enacted the original photos, distributing the roles among both young Israelis and Palestinians. It is striking that it cannot be made out who is Palestinian and who Israeli. What is palpable, though, is that the artist is playing with classic propaganda images that are firmly embedded in our collective memory, and with the fresh and youthful appearance of these young people. What we take away with us from these works is that the desire for a better and safer world is not only a timely, but above all a universal desire. Wrestling with the national identity of her native Israel is an important theme in the work of Yael Bartana.

These photographs form part of 'The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection'. The Sonnenfeld Collection is a private archive of historical images of Israel in the twentieth century. Yael Bartana (1970, Israel) has re-enacted the original photos, distributing the roles among both young Israelis and Palestinians. It is striking that it cannot be made out who is Palestinian and who Israeli. What is palpable, though, is that the artist is playing with classic propaganda images that are firmly embedded in our collective memory, and with the fresh and youthful appearance of these young people. What we take away with us from these works is that the desire for a better and safer world is not only a timely, but above all a universal desire. Wrestling with the national identity of her native Israel is an important theme in the work of Yael Bartana.

These photographs form part of 'The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection'. The Sonnenfeld Collection is a private archive of historical images of Israel in the twentieth century. Yael Bartana (1970, Israel) has re-enacted the original photos, distributing the roles among both young Israelis and Palestinians. It is striking that it cannot be made out who is Palestinian and who Israeli. What is palpable, though, is that the artist is playing with classic propaganda images that are firmly embedded in our collective memory, and with the fresh and youthful appearance of these young people. What we take away with us from these works is that the desire for a better and safer world is not only a timely, but above all a universal desire. Wrestling with the national identity of her native Israel is an important theme in the work of Yael Bartana.

A man stands hand in hand with a gorilla, level in height with it and literally a chip off the same block. He is an archetype of a man, neutral in his attire and emotion. A striking feature of this thought-provoking image of an unusual friendship is the ragged finish: the deliberate imperfection that characterises all the work of Stephan Balkenhol (1957, Germany). The human figures in his works belong to the canon of contemporary sculpture. The AkzoNobel mission puts people first, and within the AkzoNobel art collection, the image of humanity is a key theme. Man with gorilla movingly expresses this.

The artist Anton Henning (1964, Germany) has been called a chameleon painter. His oeuvre is a varied collection of subjects, styles and media. Moreover, he draws freely from art history and features representations, motifs and quotes from it in his work. In this interior, his painting-within-a-painting makes allusions to the nineteenth-century painter Courbet as well as to Matisse's Dance. His virtuosic use of color and the slightly over-the-top attitude make it a work that well showcases this esteemed painter, whose work is amply represented in the collections of Dutch (especially Museum De Pont) and international museums.

In his work, Thomas Houseago (1972, United Kingdom) playfully undermines notions of classical sculpture. He refuses to be much defined by visual language, his material or the pursuit of perfection in that tradition. Labour-intensively, Houseago shapes earthy materials such as clay, plaster and stone into imposing, deliberately clumsy-looking figures. He is above all interested in body language, postures and expressions of the human body. This image has the same characteristics as his other works: sketchy and possessed of a primitive beauty.

Itamar Gilboa (1973, Israel) gained notoriety with his Food Chain Project, for which he kept a year-long journal of everything he ate and drank. He counted up 8,000 items but came to the realisation that individual food choices are inseparable from social problems such as obesity, waste and hunger. He depicts the foods he ate in the form of little white sculptures, which makes easily visible how our diet is culturally determined: this installation is full of typical Dutch foods such as cauliflower, croquettes, milk and cheese. With the proceeds of his work, Gilboa supports organisations that work for healthy, sustainable food.

The acclaimed artist Chantal Joffe (1969, St. Albans, USA) creates expressive portraits, often of numerous women and children, on large canvases. She takes her inspiration from photographic sources such as family photographs and magazines, and distorts the images slightly. The smooth brushstrokes with which she portrays the characters are intense. Joffe has a keen eye for a certain discomfort in everyday life, although not devoid of humor. Her paintings reveal appearances constructed with care, in magazines, family photos, but also by ourselves in everyday life, which she calls the ‘choreography of display’.

The Dutch-American interdisciplinary artist Kathe Burkhart (born 1958, Martinsburg, United States) sees it as the task of art to denounce the prevailing social conflicts. Burkhart interprets this by focusing her work on female identity and the tension between the sexes. 

The diminutive size of this work by Shibu Natesan (1966, India) belies the stature of the man portrayed therein. ‘Gandhi’ forms part of a suite of paintings entitled ‘Missing’, realized during Natesan’s residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, in which he embraced photorealism for the first time. Often seeking inspiration for his work in photography, Natesan is not concerned with repainting photographs. For him, it is the process of painting itself, the re-working and slight manipulation of the source images, and the thoughts that arise from doing so that are important. Characterized by a dichotomous sense of directness and detachment, Natesan’s canvasses are not only a testimony to history. They draw the viewer in, and in the case of ‘Gandhi’ cause us to reflect upon the still relevant values for which Mahatma Gandhi stood: non-violence, respect and independence.

Marlene Dumas (1953, South Africa) was raised during the years of ‘apartheid’. In this country, black and white is an issue in quite a literally way. Dumas made portaits of a diversity of people: black, white, and all possible combinations of races. ‘Contradictions’ is an important theme in her work; with her paintings and watercolours she criticized the role patterns between man and woman, poor and rich, and the interaction between different cultures.

Completed after he had become the first American President of African descent, Amsterdam based artist Ina van Zyl (1971, South Africa) has with 'Politician' depicted the inner strength of Barack Obama well before his move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Eyes downcast, arguably pondering the enormity of the task he has set himself, Obama exudes an aura of determined, quiet resolve. The saturated canvas densely covered from corner to corner with primarily dark colors and virtually bursting at the seams with Obama's face, heightens the monumentality and gravity of the image. Resembling in many aspects the iconic "Hope" poster that came to represent Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Van Zyl's work speaks to the power of dreams and determination to bring about progress and change.

Marlene Dumas (1953, South Africa) was raised during the years of ‘apartheid’. In this country, black and white is an issue in quite a literally way. Dumas made portaits of a diversity of people: black, white, and all possible combinations of races. ‘Contradictions’ is an important theme in her work; with her paintings and watercolours she criticized the role patterns between man and woman, poor and rich, and the interaction between different cultures.

Emo Verkerk (1955, the Netherlands) is a Dutch artist whose main focus is on painting and drawing. Portraiture occupies a central position in his work, without restricting himself through realism and conventions. His work shows reality the way it’s experienced; a reality in which colors and shapes have a mind of their own and in which his vivid imagination always manages to surprise the viewer.

For a competition, Verkerk made 'Full-length State Portrait' (2014) by King Willem Alexander. Emo Verkerk had a major retrospective in 1988 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

In the fifty years since he first appeared on the New York art scene, Andy Warhol (1928-1987, USA) has become synonymous with Pop Art and with his statement 'in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.' 
His artistic career resulted in an extraordinarily prodigious oeuvre, gaining renown that will last for many years to come. One example would be his attainments in the field of printmaking, and in silkscreen printing especially; a field which he caused to be recognized as a fine art. Warhol made silkscreens of several subjects, ranging from ordinary mass products (Campbell soup cans) to celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and queen Beatrix.

The German artist Anton Henning (1964, Germany) has been called a chameleon painter. His oeuvre is a varied collection of subjects, styles and media. Moreover, he draws freely from art history and features representations, motifs and quotes from it in his work. In this interior, his painting-within-a-painting makes allusions to the nineteenth-century painter Courbet as well as to Matisse's Dance. His virtuosic use of color and the slightly over-the-top attitude make it a work that well showcases this esteemed painter, whose work is amply represented in the collections of Dutch (especially Museum De Pont) and international museums.

Berend Strik and Anton Corbijn collaborated on the art print Mandela Landscape (2011), which is included in the AkzoNobel collection.

From self-taught beginnings, Anton Corbijn (1955, Strijen, The Netherlands) has blossomed into a world-famous portrait photographer, especially of musicians. In grainy black and white photographs from the 1970s and 1980s he captured Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, David Bowie and many other celebrities. He has also made record covers and music videos, and since 2007, has also focused on film-making. 

Berend Strik (1960, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) does not restrict his work to a single medium, but combines embroidery, fabrics, photos and collages into a fascinating overview. By editing his images with needle and thread, he creates stitched work and pieces of fabric — mesh, velvet — are a component of his photos.

The underlying picture in Mandela Landscape is a portrait of Nelson Mandela that Corbijn created in 2003. The Dutch artist Berend Strik edited the image with a sewing machine. The proceeds of bringing this print into circulation have gone towards the magazine African Photography, a platform for African photography, journalism and design.

Strik is a remarkably versatile artist. Although he mainly gained renown with his embroideries, he is also works with architecture, video, photography, stained glass, and even has a play and an opera to his name.
Impressions of his travels, souvenirs, pop culture and images from art history are manipulated with Strik’s needle and thread, bits of plastic, tulle or lace. Strik masks and retouches by emphasizing some parts and shrouding or erasing others, adding a new layer of meaning. His embroidery is a slow, laborious technique that runs contrary to modern-day life, with its apparent urgency and cursory nature.

De van oorsprong Nederlandse kunstenaar Michael Raedecker geniet internationale roem sinds Charles Saatchi zijn werk aankocht en hij in 2000 werd genomineerd voor de Turner Prize. Raedecker, die sinds 1998 in Londen woont, noemt zichzelf een 'borduurder'. Afkomstig uit de modewereld pakt hij het penseel op in een streven om het trage van naald en draad te verenigen met de snelheid van een kwaststreek en de geschiedenis van het schilderen.

'Cover (2)' wordt overheerst door een bruin geschilderd vlak vol draden. Er is veel te zien op dit doet waarin hij speelt met verf, kleurvlakken, ongebruikelijke materialen en het lezen van een afbeelding. De titel, die verwijst naar een platenhoes van de hardrockband Kiss, geeft enige richting. AkzoNobel Art Foundation volgt Readecker vanaf het prille begin, zijn werk is inmiddels vertegenwoordigd in een aantal van de belangrijkste collecties ter wereld.

'Determination' is een serie portretten van kinderen uit New York. Op de Beeck gaf ze de opdracht om hun ogen te sluiten en te denken aan een paradijselijke tuin. Op de jonge gezichten zien we een glimlach maar ook een enkele frons. Zij bieden slechts een glimp van waar het werkelijk om gaat: de innerlijke gevoelswereld van deze kinderen en de voorstelling die zij zichzelf op dat moment maken.

In 'Parade', a recent short film, group after group troops across the stage of a classical theatre. In the ever-changing scenery, we see cyclists, businesspeople, a funeral procession, but also a toddler resolutely planting a few wobbly steps. Sharply highlighted, the people move onwards in slow motion to the slightly melancholy sound of a fanfare: as spectres. Parade is sometimes interpreted as an allegory of changing society, with the group dynamic yielding to the encroachments of individualism. We are looking at the cycle of passing time; it is life itself here that is slowly passing by.

The beautifully lit 'Vanitas (Variation) 10' seems to float on the wall. It is a classic still life in many shades of grey: with objects like a candlestick, a carafe and bunch of grapes, all fraught with meaning from the painting tradition. But there is also a mobile phone in between them all: what has already become a slightly older model, an icon of the contemporary period which has just become outdated. The whole scene evokes time past, how we treat it and how we represent it.

Five tiny buildings, each on its own pedestal, make up 'My five favourite small buildings', entirely executed in one single hue. They are models of the five favourite buildings of the artist, which no longer exist. Op de Beeck made "still-lacking little monuments" for this disappearing architecture of the 1950s. This work also demonstrates his humorous side: among the everyday constructions he honours are a bus shelter, petrol station and a urinal.

'Cruise Liner (at night)' shows a cruise ship on a nocturnal sea. Op de Beeck made several works around these self-aggrandising luxury ships, because they reflect both the poor working conditions in which they are typically built and our modern leisure activities: risk-free consumption in shopping and entertainment paradises, detached from any reality or authentic experience. What intrigues him is the coupling of that triviality with the mythical qualities of one of these ocean liners, which also shows what we humans are capable of.

'Table (1) (second view)' shows remains on a coffee table. Despite overflowing ashtrays and cake to which people have heavily helped themselves, there is not a crumb on the spotless tablecloth. A single strawberry that got left behind contrasts with the overwhelming whiteness of the scene. Undeniably fictitious and staged, here Op de Beeck brings a parallel world to view, one that is altogether concerned with has gone on beforehand but which has since dissolved into time past.

Rubbed into all sixteen sheets of 'zonder titel' (Untitled) are samples of earth that herman de vries (1931, The Netherlands) collected from Oudeschild on the Dutch island of Texel to Varkala in India and various places in Australia. The distinctive color pigments are characteristic of those places and show the great diversity of the natural environment.

This work can also be seen as an artistic counterpart to the scientific research that AkzoNobel conducts internationally into raw materials and pigments. By purchasing this and a few other works by de vries, AkzoNobel enabled his solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2015, where he officially represented the Netherlands.

Shen Chen (1955, China) once described his oeuvre as a quest for "a kind of spirit of ink painting". This is a statement that goes to the core of his work, which has been said to be Western in appearance but Oriental in soul. On this canvas, we see innumerable fine brushstrokes. Towards the top, the black intensely deepens, giving way to a thin orange stripe at the very top. Chen's work fits perfectly within the AkzoNobel Art Foundation's theme of ‘Color and Research’: he studied and practised the Chinese painting theory 'mo fen wu se', which not only teaches how to use the traditional five shades, but also how color can be observed as a system.

Frank Ammerlaan (1979, The Netherlands) has an eye for beauty "at the margins" and is able to focus on things that usually pass us by unnoticed, such as an oil trail that pops up under a car after a shower of rain. The iridescent spots on 'Untitled, 2013' are formed by oil and soap bubbles, fixed with chemicals in a pattern over which the artist has had little control. The colors continue to change on the canvas. After Ammerlaan graduated in 2007, he won the prestigious Koninklijke Prijs voor de Vrije Schilderkunst in 2012.

'The Total Amount' by Pieter Laurens Mol (1946, The Netherlands) exhibits the contents of a 100-year-old painter's case. Lying in a specially-crafted glass cabinet of the old type are 72 types of raw pigments in beautiful colors and of different finenesses. The photo above the display case shows the artist himself, in reverse video, hanging uneasily over his material. In a text about this work, Mol himself writes of "the painter who sees better than anyone else how enchanting color can be". This work thus won a place in the heart of the AkzoNobel art collection.

Pieter Laurens Mol is one of the first Dutch artists to have secured a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York during his own lifetime.

Maria Roosen's (1957, The Netherlands) 'Droomhuis' is made up of a number of free global forms on which the rough outlines of windows and doors have been applied. Encased in gold leaf, precious and pure, and as gently suggested by the title, this sculpture bears the idea of the ideal house: the abode of bliss. Roosen's work, which rose to prominence largely for her sensual glass sculptures, is sometimes described as a plea for the imagination in our world dominated by facts and practical usefulness.

Maria Roosen represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 1995 in a presentation in which Marlene Dumas and Marijke van Warmerdam also took part.

'Work (Office Blocks)' by Krijn de Koning (1963, The Netherlands) is made up of rudimentary spatial elements, painted in warm colors, which seem to open up a space but which also act as boundaries. Although the title suggests otherwise, these are not usable constructions. However, they do strongly lead our gaze and visually reveal how great the impact is of color on our perception of space.

Krijn de Koning's work can best be described as sculptural, although it incorporates qualities of painting and architecture. De Koning received the prestigious Dutch Sikkens Prize in 2007, previously won by Gerrit Rietveld, Theo van Doesburg and Donald Judd.

'Blumenzucht' by Seet van Hout (1957, The Netherlands) leaps out at one as a variegated explosion of colors that seem to rise like bubbles across the canvas. The soft, organic shapes are the result of thinly applied paint, with color blending into color again and again. Van Hout is interested in "what is in our mind": in how memory plays a role in the manual preparation of such a painting and in the repetition of an act.

The installation 'Recaptured from the collective' consists of two parts. On the wall hang 60 framed sticky notes in a row, showing traces of an ink stain as it has penetrated through one of those yellow blocks that nearly everyone has on their desk. The conical shape of the purple sculpture is derived from the lesser and lesser quantities of ink that have penetrated the paper, seen spatially. Hague-based Navid Nuur (1967, Iran) uses ordinary objects and materials and manages to use them to open a whole new perspective. He investigates ever new ideas and concepts, even defining the rules and laws as he does so. In 2010, he won de Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs for the visual arts.

He is about to go on for war, she will mis him for sure, hence she quickly traces his shadow on the wall with a piece of charcoal. His remaining silhouette will remind her of him. In short, this is how according to Pliny The Elder (23-79 AD, in his Naturalis Historia, Book XXXV chapter 5), an important Roman writer, painting was invented. The theme of this story of “the origin of painting” was a popular theme around the eighteen hundreds. The work of Niek Hendrix is based upon one of those eponymous works, in this case one from 1832 by the relatively unknown German painter Eduard Daege (1805-1883).

In this work by Niek Hendrix the story of the silhouette returns, it is about remembrance of the other person, but also about remembrance of the image and the concept of the silhouette. How can a simple line represent someone? Because these panels literally go from light to dark it addresses also the history of art, from a blank canvas on which we project our image, to the deep dark shadow where abstract art does not represent factual objects anymore. Painting has always been about light and darkness en perhaps will continue to do so.

'Paradise Love Bar' by British artist Aisling Hedgecock (1979, Ireland) is made of polyurethane foam and thousands of polystyrene balls. Even despite those most chemical of materials, the organic shape of the work is reminiscent of a coral reef - and matches the colourful beauty of one. It is as if the work could burgeon into a new reef at any time. Hedgecock, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2006, examines formlessness and fluidity. Her fascination is the complexity of nature, and the continual change to which the natural landscape is subject. These are ideas that resonate within the AkzoNobel Art Foundation, as do Hedgecock's wayward imagination of them.

Jan Andriesse (1950, Indonesia) creates artworks about light, space and the reflection of light on water. He draws inspiration from the view of the water from his studio on his houseboat and investigates natural phenomena.
The continuous change of water seems to be a metaphor for the light, which Andriesse sees as a kind of movement. He rose to international fame in the nineties with his large-scale rainbowpaintings, in which the colors blend into each other imperceptibly.