Exhibition at the documenta Hall, Kassel
October 2–November 25, 2004
The paintings by Mattie Schilders can be considered “landscape art”. However, for the artist, the appearance of nature is merely a point of departure from which to venture toward his own, his “inner landscapes”. This can be seen in particular in the series on the “Discovery of the Earth”, shown in Kassel in 2004, on which Schilders had been working continuously over the past years.
The first chapter, “To the Borders of the Earth”, consists of images reminiscent of aerial views from a great altitude. As if an imaginary viewer were slowly approaching the planet, observing the violent collision and the imperceptible merging of the elements, following coastlines, peeking into flaming craters, gliding along mountain ridges, through different zones of vegetation, river beds, washed-up sediments, deposits of red oxidized sands. The second chapter, “Alchemy of Earth and Air”, pursues a more familiar perspective. Often, we can make out a horizon line; these images come closest to our concept of “landscape”. One perceives reverberations of memories of the Sahara, the North-American Canyons, or of Iceland. Schilders has traveled to these and many other places in the course of his artistic activity. In the last, most personal chapter, “A Hidden World, Discovered”, the painter leaves the surface of the earth and penetrates unknown territories: the depths of the sea, inhabited by mysterious forms of life, but also the earth's crust, past rock strata down to the glowing core.
Based on what he has learnt, Mattie Schilders tries to create a new order of color, form and motion in which the mimetic element recedes more and more into the background. In his free play with forms of nature, the painter approaches a style that is purely abstract.
Mattie Schilders was born in Geertruidenberg in 1951. He studied at the Academy of Industrial Design, Eindhoven, and the Academy of Fine Arts, Tilburg. This exhibition, organized by the Staatliche Museen Kassel and Wintershall, presented his work to a wider German audience for the first time. Afterward it was shown at the Jan van der Togt Museum in Amstelveen near Amsterdam.
Exhibition catalog:
Annelette Hamming: Ongekend land. De ontdekking van de aarde. Paintings. Dutch and German. With contributions by Ruud Ringers and Fabian Fröhlich. 180 pages. Over 200 illustrations, most of them in color. Kempen Uitgevers, Zaltbommel 2004.
Contact:
Mattie Schilders
Geertruidenberg 1951
Home and Studio: Kennedylaan 23,
5121 AA Rijen, Netherlands
Phone: +31 161-413423
Fax: +31 161-413427
Atelier: +31 161-413426
Mobil: +31 6-10462307
E-mail: mattie@tref.nl
Internet: www.mattieschilders.nl
