RW van de Wint
For Van de Wint (1942 – 2006), being an artist is synonymous with life. He would rather be a gardener than an artist. And in addition to a gardener, also a draftsman, painter, sculptor and builder, but actually a gardener is enough. Creating a shape and thus a world that contains a thought is sufficient. In the old inner dune De Nollen he brings the different disciplines together as a natural unity. The landscape changes into sculpture, sculpture into painting, painting in sunlight and sunlight returns to the landscape.
Creating his own structures as a support for a painting, which prompted Van de Wint to withdraw in 1980. But the question of where art can still find a place was also the basis of his self-chosen exile. The image of the modern artist at the heart of social life, who follows the avant-gardes sharply and is constantly looking for innovation had always alienated him from reality. By retreating to a neglected part of the inner dune, artistry became a form of life. It was not about innovation, but about a deepening, about taking a small step within the tradition. Van de Wint creates ‘old’ images of light, color and space or builds the conditions for showing those old images, at a time when the claim to innovation in art has disappeared,
A walk through De Nollen leads past large steel sculptures, past structures where you enter a light space from light to dark, via an underground entrance. You enter the building Virgil via a narrow passage and a staircase. The paintings in the two mirrored spaces surround you completely. When you leave the artwork and the artificial color, you experience, precisely at a moment when you do not expect it, the reality around you more strongly: the color veils in the grass, the air, the wind, the silence. There is a constant interaction between art and reality. The experience of the one reinforces the experience of the other. De Nollen is about that total experience. And this in turn forms the chisel into the true sculpture. That only arises afterwards, says Van de Wint, in your head.
At the same time there is a complexity in this simplicity. There is always a different tone at the same time, a counterpoint. For example, the self-chosen exile brought great artistic freedom, the small hidden world ‘De Nollen’ led to dozens of large sculptures outside De Nollen. Years later, leaving the museum hall in 1980 led him to make sculptures especially for museum halls, in the Kroller-Muller Museum. And for someone who has always attached value to the autonomy of the art project, it seems paradoxical that many applied forms of art arise from this autonomy.
In a world that is changing ever faster, Van de Wint wants to evoke a world of elementary images that have been the same for centuries. It is not a question of sentiment, but it is a question of which values keep their meaning. This ‘world of images’ comes about in a careful way, hesitantly, not subtly or in a mystical way, but raw, expressive or earthly. But as important as Van de Wint thinks it is to make a painting, he thinks it is just as important to look at the sun or the moon, to prune the trees or to mow the meadow grass. In this too he explores meanings. Simply exhibiting works of art would be too one-sided for him. It is not intended to be moralistic, that would not suit Van de Wint, it is the standpoint of the doubt. Van de Wint passed away on May 30, 2006 at De Nollen.
