Michael van Ofen
04 - 25 Oct 2008
MICHAEL VAN OFEN
Michael van Ofen's paintings express the portraits and landscapes in the minimum brushstrokes. There are only few elements to be found on the painterly plane, but with very carefully controlled brushstrokes, composition of colors and light, we find ourselves feeling as if our imagination took flight, to rediscover the most universal motif in the Western painting. In fact, van Ofen's works often finds its sources in the 18th Century onwards' classical works. His work dated in 2003 titled "Horatier" is based on the "Oath of the Horatii" painted by Jacques Louis David, a Neo Classicism painter in 1784. Van Ofen's paintings only shows beautiful straight lines in high contrast, but to those who had seen the David's work could probably be reminded of the particular work.
Not only as in this example, his motifs - some portraits he had chosen to paint, the landscapes, the still lives ? had repeatedly been the motifs in the long history of paintings. The mere stroke of a brush on the canvas suggests to us the light shone on the face of a person, on the clothing of a person, or on the slopes of mountains. Despite the minimalist expression that could also be said as abstract painterly, van Ofen's paintings that remind us of the figurative world, is full of possibilities of what a painting on canvas could show to us.
Michael van Ofen's paintings express the portraits and landscapes in the minimum brushstrokes. There are only few elements to be found on the painterly plane, but with very carefully controlled brushstrokes, composition of colors and light, we find ourselves feeling as if our imagination took flight, to rediscover the most universal motif in the Western painting. In fact, van Ofen's works often finds its sources in the 18th Century onwards' classical works. His work dated in 2003 titled "Horatier" is based on the "Oath of the Horatii" painted by Jacques Louis David, a Neo Classicism painter in 1784. Van Ofen's paintings only shows beautiful straight lines in high contrast, but to those who had seen the David's work could probably be reminded of the particular work.
Not only as in this example, his motifs - some portraits he had chosen to paint, the landscapes, the still lives ? had repeatedly been the motifs in the long history of paintings. The mere stroke of a brush on the canvas suggests to us the light shone on the face of a person, on the clothing of a person, or on the slopes of mountains. Despite the minimalist expression that could also be said as abstract painterly, van Ofen's paintings that remind us of the figurative world, is full of possibilities of what a painting on canvas could show to us.