Page 21 - Enamel & More

Cross-cut Wood (1986) - Woodcut

Maria van Elk, Amsterdam

In the sixties, Maria van Elk was trained at the
department of Free Painting of the Academy Minerva,
Groningen. From the beginning of the seventies, she
applied herself to fundamental drawing- and painting.
Van Elks drawings and paintings from this period do
not refer to anything outside the work, but are a direct
reflection of the act that was guided especially with an
eye on the properties of the material.
Thus, at the retrospective exhibition Maria van Elk:
Drawing 1973-1980 (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam)
drawings were shown in which the hardness of pencil,
the mixing of pencil, charcoal and white chalk or the
wrinkling and folding of the paper played an important
role.
In many eases the final result is unpredictable for, the
control of the drawing process is exercised only to a
certain extent. Only a few minimal lines fill the image.
In the period 1980- 1986 she is more occupied with
the mixing of colours and non-colours in the series
Crossings. At the crossings of lanes, which are drawn
with oil pastel is shown how one colour dominates the
other visually.
In 1986 come about Cross-cut wood and Length-cut
wood. These wood prints are based on the idea of
cross cut and length cut wood: the wood that is cut
in the transverse direction shows another print than
the wood cut in the longitudinal direction. Here also
the physical properties of the material are central,
in this case the coarse print of the annual rings that
contain the ‘history’ of the tree. Like carpenters’ tools,
elastic band, rulers and such hanging nails in the wall,
so suspend the parts of cross-cut wood in a row on
a common balance point. In comparison to Van Elks
restrained and rigorous work from earlier years, Cross-
cut wood has a more casual almost frivolous character.
Apart from her work as a visual artist Van Elk teaches
at the AKI in Enschede.

Leontine Coelewij
Government Purchases 1987
Work of contemporary artist
Publication of “Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst”, p. 71

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