Bonn Petersburg Kabul, 2004

Ad Gerritsen’s (1940-2015, the Netherlands) work bears testimony to pre-conceived notions of ‘the other:’ colored by the exterior markings of race and creed, largely subjective and often unfounded. Gerritsen paints portraits. The images he creates present an unabridged, frequently confronting, version of reality. However, his work also brings hope. ‘Bonn Petersburg Kabul’ is based upon photographs of people from the named locations. Only a few of them are rendered in color, making it difficult to discern the ethnicity of the remaining silhouetted figures that meld anonymously into the depicted crowd. Gerritsen’s work serves as a reminder that we are not as different from each other as we may think and that humanity is the common ground that binds us.