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Independence and attitude During the sixties I 23349_Kerstkaart_Maria v Elk_Vouwvormen.indd 1
have experimented a lot. An environment, that I
made in 1967, had to do with social involvement.
The threshold between art and public had to be
demolished, people could sit inside. It was some Maria van Elk, “Scale 1:1” forms of folding, oil paint stick on paper, 65 x 65 cm, 1986 acquired for the Rijksmuseum with support from the Knecht-Drenth Fund /
sort of meditation room, completely in soft black Oliepastel drawings on Japanese paper | 1986 | 45½ x 45½ cm Collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and the Berth & Lammie Fund photography Evert De Cock
and white material. This was an enormous work for
which I got a subsidy. This was completely beyond
my control. Problems with transportation, storage
and also with the concept. For me it was about the
reality of art, an intermediate between something
that is an illusion and that what is tangible. It was
also a step in the direction of the public. But the
physical experience it produced turned out in their
reactions into vulgar erotical frolic, whereas I had
been looking for stillness. Moreover, when you
work on this scale you need a large atelier and lots
of money for materials. You develop an enormous
dependence on money, space, museums, civil
servants, people. Of anything and everything. I am
allergic to dependence. After this experience it was
finished for me. The social relevance of art, which
was by now a claim, bothered me. I quit for a while
and preferred to study philosophy. Then I divorced
and had to earn money all of a sudden. This was 14-12-2020 14:20
in 1972. I had to think seriously. If I had to go back
making art it would be absolutely only on my own
terms. Then I decided to reason only from what GEOMETRIC FOLDS | 1986
interested me, that which I could comprehend.
Physically as well as financially, mentally and
emotionally. I was indifferent to the question Looking
whether it was art or not. The environment was
bought by the city of Amsterdam and I could use
the art subsidy arrangement (BKR) to start anew. The Director
From 1974 on I have worked entirely independent.
I teach, first as a guest teacher at the Rietveld The way in which colours behave is miraculous. Sometimes only minor interferences in a material will bring out an
Academy, and from 1975 on at the AKI, Enschede. irresistible shimmer in how a colour manifests. I was looking at a number of "Geometrical Folding Forms" by Maria
At this academy I am coordinator of the
department Mixed Media, which I set up myself. van Elk from 1986. These were sheets of white flexible paper, about 45cm square. This pas then folded several times
by Maria. This could be done on a table, by hand, effectively directly under her eyes. The folding was done carefully.
From detail to whole From 1973 on my work can about society and my position in it. From the detail * ) thanks to Astrid Roemer, “Why should you cry my The paper was delicate. A fragile form arose, a symmetrical pattern of folding lines, refined as the pleats of a fan, as lite
be described as work with fundamental, concrete to the whole, from the specific to the general. dear, dear ....” (Waarom zou je huilen mijn lieve, lieve....), and feathered as well. Yet also this: in the angular spaces among sharp folding lines, we see the slight bulging of the
and visual properties of drawing-materials. Until Or, in other words, from the development of the Conservé’s Novel Series No. 5, 1987 (1976), p. 7.
recently on a modest scale. The isolation at the individual and from there to the common interest. paper. The surface becomes uneven. The little fields that originated were not anticipated: first, a sheet of paper was
atelier played a role in the way these drawings How can, when the individual does not function, folded "close" and then again it was folded open. This way, amidst folding lines, a hexagon comes to live, compact and
were made. I have isolated details and brought the general function? My development is a careful enigmatic in shape, the artist has given it an extraordinary red colour. The radiance of this bright red is a result of the
them back again to independence. In those years conquest of independence and with that the vivid style: the sharpness of the folded edges simultaneously make the red more intense. It is made with oil pastels with
I have become aware very much of the concept freedom to accomplish also assignments on a large a brittle surface. This gritty red seems "to fit" exactly within the firm border that contains it.
of independence of myself and also of the visual scale for the common interest. Because, when the
elements. Actually, the development of my work concept – the beginning – is there, I will bring it to In these beautifully folded shapes there is an extraordinary relationship between form and colour. For instance: a wide
runs parallel with the development of my thinking a successful conclusion. triangle is a shape that is more spacious than a narrow hexagon. Red is compact and twinkles like a diamond. Green
is a more spacious colour. I am thinking about grass. An upright, standing, diamond shape is solemn. Within it fits
the cobalt blue that is a darker and more languid colour. Looking at colours like this, dreamy and in earnest at the
same time, it liberates and releases our perception. That is because, like with sound, the mysteries of colour are
unfathomable.

Rudi Fuchs in the Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer
December 17, 2020

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