Marjolein Rothman
15 Oct - 26 Nov 2005
Marjolein Rothman
MAKE BELIEVE
15 october - 26 november 2005
Motive Gallery is proud to present Make Believe, an exhibition of paintings by Marjolein Rothman.
Marjolein Rothman (1974) studied at the AKI Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Enschede and completed her residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in December 2004. That same year she won the Royal Prize for Painting and the Buning Brongers Prize for young painters.
During this period, Rothman painted works of art about power and powerlessness. Nearly black-and-white images of monuments and formal classical gardens portray not only beauty and grandeur, but more particularly the inability to fend off chaos and mortality.
Early this year, Rothman exhibited a series of military hats and helmets in the Nederlandsche Bank at the exhibition The Treasury. The war museum in Barcelona served as the source of inspiration for this series. It was there that she saw an impressive display of war equipment featuring weapons, uniforms and helmets. She became fascinated by their deceptive beauty, the sense of order and the use of rituals that accompany warfare.
Marjolein Rothman employs painting as a direct and intense medium, contemporary and unadorned. Technically, her paintings are decidedly graphic, linear and flat. What stands out most in a series of small paintings, primarily portraits, which Rothman recently produced, are soft shades of gray and subdued pastels. These portraits are of legendary figures from the past: Peter the Great and his son Aleksey, both clothed in resplendent uniforms; next to it is Lenin and a white rose followed by a number of anonymous yet equally heroic people.
How do people cope with the awareness of the futile and temporary nature of their existence? Rothman is primarily interested in the attempt people make to escape this void, however much in vain. Nonetheless, her approach is never cynical. Far from it, she focuses on their hope and longing.
© Marjolein Rothman
aleksej
acryl on canvas, 60 x 40 cm, 2005
MAKE BELIEVE
15 october - 26 november 2005
Motive Gallery is proud to present Make Believe, an exhibition of paintings by Marjolein Rothman.
Marjolein Rothman (1974) studied at the AKI Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Enschede and completed her residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in December 2004. That same year she won the Royal Prize for Painting and the Buning Brongers Prize for young painters.
During this period, Rothman painted works of art about power and powerlessness. Nearly black-and-white images of monuments and formal classical gardens portray not only beauty and grandeur, but more particularly the inability to fend off chaos and mortality.
Early this year, Rothman exhibited a series of military hats and helmets in the Nederlandsche Bank at the exhibition The Treasury. The war museum in Barcelona served as the source of inspiration for this series. It was there that she saw an impressive display of war equipment featuring weapons, uniforms and helmets. She became fascinated by their deceptive beauty, the sense of order and the use of rituals that accompany warfare.
Marjolein Rothman employs painting as a direct and intense medium, contemporary and unadorned. Technically, her paintings are decidedly graphic, linear and flat. What stands out most in a series of small paintings, primarily portraits, which Rothman recently produced, are soft shades of gray and subdued pastels. These portraits are of legendary figures from the past: Peter the Great and his son Aleksey, both clothed in resplendent uniforms; next to it is Lenin and a white rose followed by a number of anonymous yet equally heroic people.
How do people cope with the awareness of the futile and temporary nature of their existence? Rothman is primarily interested in the attempt people make to escape this void, however much in vain. Nonetheless, her approach is never cynical. Far from it, she focuses on their hope and longing.
© Marjolein Rothman
aleksej
acryl on canvas, 60 x 40 cm, 2005