Page 14 - Enamel & More

HAAGS GEMEENTE MUSEUM | THE CHOICE OF THE ARTIST

Everything Simultaneously

The infinite number of visual facts in the ‘material reality’; Nature, shows itself from
a distance as a coherent picture. I he observation, guided by a search for the cause,
minimizes the distance and maximizes the components. Seeming details, break free from
their setting and present themselves then as isolated visual facts
I hat which once sank into the mass now becomes an independency with a new visual
territory. Simultaneously with the disappearance of the context, the conditioned comparison
disappears as well. Things can be set anew.
One thing at a time.

Maria van Elk. April 1983

In 1981 Maria van Elk had an exhibition of her work, drawings of the last 10 years. * At this
occasion she made a book with pictures of that work and with a text by Coosje van Bruggen
who expressed the drawn work in text. The finely executed and extremely informative
little book shows that Maria van Elk’s work primarily is about the act itself of drawing, the
use, the importance and the sensitiveness of the material, the hand of drawing and the
technique. The hand of drawing is thereby a reflection of movement, the visual memory of
an act. Also, the folds and creases in earlier work at above mentioned exhibition* are a kind
of handwriting, but more like a grip, an action.

Maria van Elk opts for simple images that make the object visually distinct, in other words,
no magic but clarity. Concentrated moments in which she, so to speak, chooses rather for
the branch than for the whole tree. A focused scrutiny on one thing preferably. With real
attention one cannot focus on one thing for more than one minute. The action on paper, the
drawing hand, is a precipitation of a decision made beforehand.

As artists who interest Maria van Elk mentions Sol Lewitt, Claes Oldenburg, the first one
especially for the conceptual nature of his wall drawings, and the second one for his
sensitivity for the use of material. Almost sensual she calls it. As art historical context of her
work, she mentions the lyrical abstract art because it enabled the further development the
area of the material in a visual grammar.
I do not share the fear of the post-war European Constructivist for the personal hand
as reference to an emotion. Neither do I link heroic feelings to a hand. The hand is pure
movement and could be. like for instance with Sol Lewitt be executed by anyone with an
experienced hand.

Maria van Elk’s creativity resides in the mental process preceding the realization of the work.
There is no ambition for an almost industrial perfection such as with the post-war European
Constructivists. In contrast to the Americans, Newman, Marden and Morris Louis though an
almost “sensual” use of materials (paint, unprepared linen whereby the canvas is saturated
with paint. Actually, it is the difference between the post-war European and American art.
In Europe the classic’ pursuit of perfection, with the American’s a use of material which
visualizes how of art originated. As with Maria van Elk the work documents itself.

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