It is a pleasure to announce the third solo exhibition of the Dutch artist Kees Goudzwaard (born 1958, Utrecht), for whom in the meantime Antwerp has become a second home.

Everything starts with paper, tape and transparent acetates. Using a collage technique, the artist links all elements and organizes the image. This is Goudzwaard’s way of drawing and sketching. Later he transfers the entire scene to canvas with oil paint. The sketch loses its status and is processed for another work. The transient character and fragility of this stage turn into a durable, finished painting. The translation process involved is fascinating and confronts us with questions concerning originality, copying and authenticity. The individuality of each painting prevails, yet the paintings also remain part of a larger whole.

Collected Details is an exhibition at which the glance spans the gap between past, present and future. Goudzwaard’s oeuvre is a slow flux, and within it every shift potentially affects the whole. All elements present define the emptiness in-between and vice versa. At the heart of this oeuvre, there is movement, gesture and a handwriting—not to be mistaken with the concept of signature. This is manifest not just in the sketching and painting process, but also in the image itself. Especially in Brushstroke Drawing (2014) we see a torrent of brushstrokes, which, despite the interruptions, convey an impression of unity.

There is a great deal of duality in Goudzwaard’s work. It is rigid and structured, but at the same time it is organic and playful. The rhythmical compositions are structured according to a logic he seeks to elude time and again, and the images are as abstract as they are concrete. Are we looking at a superposition of voids or at a concatenation of colour areas? Perhaps we need not choose—it is simultaneity that prevails.

The artist himself refers to his work as doors rather than windows. For him, the material reality of the canvas and the space it carries within itself are at least as meaningful as the suggestion of a reality through paint. The canvas itself not only serves as a framework or as the bearer of an image—it is part of the image itself. Like in the case of a door, there is the object, i.e. that which we see, but there is also the hint of a world beyond, that which stirs our imagination. Colour, structures and shapes evoke memories that broaden the aesthetic experience. The personal is the point of departure for the creation of universal images, which in turn, after observation and interpretation, appeal again to the personal.

Goudzwaard puzzles over things, doubts, and organizes meetings. He paints various gradations of light and constructs spaces by combining volumes of colour. The intensity of the colour is the result of the superposition of several layers of paint. Like so many other artists, Goudzwaard engages in a dialogue with the history of art. He interprets and translates, in order to create his own language. Every translation involves a loss, but also results in a creative force. Each painting is therefore a collection of memories, discoveries, impressions and shifts—all this influenced by time, space and the hand of the artist. From nothing there comes something and thus meaning and involvement originate.

Early in 2014 Goudzwaard presented a solo exhibition in the Cabinets of the Vleeshal in Middelburg (NL). Earlier the artist showed his work in the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam (NL), the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem (NL), the Culturgest in Lisbon (PT) and the S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE). His work has also been on view at group exhibitions at the Rennes Biennial (FR), Castillo/Corrales in Paris (FR), Roger Raveel Museum in Machelen-Zulte (BE), Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf (DE) and Programa Art Center in Mexico City (MX). Goudzwaard’s work has found a place in numerous public collections, including Mu.ZEE in Ostend (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE) and Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf (DE).