Drawings
Family Dice
If, like me, you delve deeper into tubular frame chairs, you’ll see all sorts of connections and relationships within the “tubular frame collection.” For example, in Cheese, it’s the visible way the backrest is attached. That triangle of attachment points can then become a face. I started with Cees Braakman’s SB01. It turns out that many other designs also have these facial features, see Family Portrait III, which I recently made. I’d already noticed that the number of (visible) attachment points varies considerably. I made a game about it myself, including a die. The ‘family of attachment point variations’ then becomes the Family Dice.
Back up II’26
In a single movement, this work is created together with Lucrezia looks. This one is inspired by an old school chair with an oval plywood backrest. Eyes in your back, reassuring security.
Lucrezia’s looks
Those who know my oeuvre have long been familiar with portraits of chairs depicting only the backrest, just as with people, only the head and sometimes part of the upper body is depicted. It began in 2012 with Portraits 1 through 9. Many more followed, which can be found on this website, for example, Portrait 11 or Portrait 46. Naturally, I’ve also started playing with this portrait theme again. A good example is Pinocchio or Pinocchio III. And in this light I can’t leave Look unmentioned. And that’s mainly due to the intervention I made in this work. It’s up to the viewer to figure that out. It works best face-to-face with the work (which is true for most of my works, by the way).
Back up-zelfportret
Many chairs made during the Baroque period, mostly for the more luxurious palaces, have a ‘plank’ in the backrest sawn into Baroque shapes. Luxuriant curls and curves. As is often the case, I was actually looking for something different, but while leafing through the book “Möbelstile,” my eye fell on these Baroque armrests. I immediately thought of papercut silhouettes. The step to portraits isn’t so big then. What portrait? A self-portrait!
Familieportret III
Connecting external features. It is the first basis on which order can be created. For me as an artist, it is a fruitful way to look at chairs. The work Spel, created in 2024, is based on external features. You can literally play a game with these 36 drawings. Family ties also manifest themselves through these features. However, you can also reverse this: whoever shares the same element and/or constructive principle becomes family. The fact that I myself, the eldest son, come from a family of six determined the size of the family in this case.
Dubbelportret III
Take a look at Portrait 46. I recently immortalized this sleek, geometric chair by Maurizio Varsi in my series of portraits. Around the same time, I was actually looking for something different, and I spotted “Zanzi.” A design by Boris Berlin and Paul Christiansen. Well, they needed to be introduced to each other. That became Double Portrait III.
Portret 48
In a sense, many of my drawings are also portraits of chairs. In the “portrait” series, which now totals fifty, the key is the choice to depict only the upper half of the chair—the backrest. This is, of course, analogous to a portrait photograph or painting, where only the upper body or head is depicted. For those familiar with the chair depicted, it’s still instantly recognizable, but it also offers a new perspective on the chair. Numbers 46, 47, and 48 are horizontal and slightly different in size, and more spacious because they consist of two layers.
Portret 47
In a sense, many of my drawings are also portraits of chairs. In the “portrait” series, which now totals fifty, the key is the choice to depict only the upper half of the chair—the backrest. This is, of course, analogous to a portrait photograph or painting, where only the upper body or head is depicted. For those familiar with the chair depicted, it’s still instantly recognizable, but it also offers a new perspective on the chair. Numbers 46, 47, and 48 are horizontal and slightly different in size, and more spacious because they consist of two layers.
Portret 46
In a sense, many of my drawings are also portraits of chairs. In the “portrait” series, which now totals fifty, the key is the choice to depict only the upper half of the chair—the backrest. This is, of course, analogous to a portrait photograph or painting, where only the upper body or head is depicted. For those familiar with the chair depicted, it’s still instantly recognizable, but it also offers a new perspective on the chair. Numbers 46, 47, and 48 are horizontal and slightly different in size, and more spacious because they consist of two layers.
Ver Z
The ‘Z‘ or Zigzag chair by Gerrit Rietveld, it pops up in my collection more often. To perceive is a verb. I continue to enjoy playing with perception. Human perception is very much based on assumptions, which is useful because it would be very tiring to have to analyze to death everything that appears in your field of vision. It is fun to question the ‘fill in the blanks’. Of course, this only works if you view this work ‘in real life’ and hung at the right height. You view the ‘Z’ from a distance (‘ver’ in dutch), a distraction for your eyes.
Gaming chair
What an obvious combination, actually, because the single-tube chair is essentially a course made of a metal rod or tube. Increase the difficulty a bit, and voila!
You can also practice a steady hand mentally, and this drawing is perfect for that.
Solo Simili III
“Simili” in the title comes from the paper I use for all my pencil drawings: “Simili Japon.” This paper was developed about a century and a half ago and takes its name from its similarity in color and quality to original Japanese paper, hence the “Japon” in its name. It’s a fine paper for pencil drawing, and yet in this case, I didn’t. In a sense, I drew with a knife, and by mounting it in layers, I leave the rest of the “drawing work” to the light. So, it’s essentially just paper that you’re presented with here, framed (though): Solo Simili. This work is related to Solo Simili and Solo Simili II, hence the “III.”
Siamese stoel II
A somewhat older desk or work chair. We know many variations of this. Nature saddles us now and then with aberrations where something has gone wrong in the cell division. A sheep with five legs, a calf with two heads or of course Siamese twins are clear examples of this. When you design and make something with your full mind, these kinds of ‘mistakes’ of course no longer occur. As a thought experiment and certainly also as a form it can be interesting or even challenging. The seat is already rising.
Schommel V
This drawing immediately refers back to an ‘older’ one entitled ‘Two-seater‘. Again a two-seater, that is immediately clear. But because of the circular connection a swing almost automatically arises. Just as swinging can give the feeling, albeit for a moment, that you are withdrawing from the laws of gravity, this also applies here in a certain sense to the dimensions. You seem to swing from one dimension to the other.
Anti materie
This design by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen is also called the Ant chair in English. There are both three and four-legged versions. For my ‘version’ the tripod was of course necessary. The combination of pencil drawing and carving and assembly in layers makes the originally wooden part of the chair drawn by the light. The frame follows the shapes of the chair and the perspective and thus makes the whole into a kind of (family?) coat of arms for this chair and therefore for Arne Jacobsen.
Space Shield
A razor-sharp linework in parts combined with more classical pencil drawing produces a layered work, also in a literal sense. For the more language-sensitive viewer there is also the title ‘Space Shield’. Of course a reference to the shape of the frame.