Brands' vibrant art appeals to the emotions

By Carla Bianpoen

JAKARTA (JP): For Eugene Brands, dreams never die. This is evident in his exhibition at the Erasmus Huis, the Dutch cultural center. As a boy, Brands dreamed of a world filled with rich imagery, opened up through the window of his attic room in Amsterdam. The stars, the moon, the skies formed his entry to the universe, and it is these images in his work that remain a source of inspiration.

This sense of wonder, always evident in children, combined with vivid imagery has given his art an invigorating touch of marvel. Brands, at 84 one of Holland's oldest and foremost painters, continues to roam the universe in his paintings.

Inspired by the mystique of the cosmos, intrigued by Greek philosopher Heraclites and the teachings of Zen Buddhism -- which believes eternal movement makes everything subject to change -- Brands' abstract expressionist canvases are filled with warm, vibrant colors flowing into each other. For the sensitive viewer it is not hard to feel the vibrations of the colors. While the warmth and vibrance of the colors add to the communicative quality of the painting, the application of the colors onto the canvas communicate the notion that light exists underneath them, luring the sensitive visitor into exciting emotions.

The works offer a brief retrospective of the artist's work through the waves of world change over the years. Already his early drawings for advertisement illustrations have a surrealistic overtone. A drawing of this time is a kind of still- life titled Composition of Objects on the Beach. Brands would walk along the beach, picking up the little things and arranging them. He would find a shell, a key, a button and arrange them as a sort of still life, reveals his daughter, present at the official opening by Mr. Ritzen, Dutch minister of education culture and science, on Jan. 8.

Brands was a major exponent of the COBRA movement. One might easily associate the word COBRA with a serpent of the most dangerous kind. And maybe they were seen as such in their time, as fellow artists were furious with the nonconformist ideas COBRA members brought into their art.

However, the name is actually a contracted abbreviation of the names of the cities from which the artists came, i.e. COpenhagen, BRussels and Amsterdam. Shaking the grounds of the art world in Europe shortly after World War II, the COBRA movement was short lived, but had a key impact on opening up new ways of artistic expression in Europe.

When Brands joined the movement, childlike depictions with a touch of the primitive filled his canvases. Like Karel Appel or Corneille, he broke away from the conventional art of the time. At some points, one cannot escape the notion that the paint was put on canvas before the bold lines formed the contours of a figure or animal.

But Brands himself left the movement when he thought it was imposing on the individuality of his artistic creations. He believed an artist should produce art based on his or her own personal evolution and aspiration. He withdrew into himself and spent his time with his only child and daughter Eugenie, who has grown to become a costume designer.

As a child Eugenie loved to draw and paint the fantasies of fairy tales. Brands, with his innate sense of wonder and imagery, easily shared and enjoyed the fantasies of his daughter. In fact, her paintings became a source of inspiration for his creativity, as did the dream world of Chagall. His works of this time have that specific quality: story telling, mystical and romantic. The Lovers, in brown, white and a whiff of green is one painting of this kind.

After this immersion in the fantasy world of children, Brands went on with abstract depictions of his visions. Sweeping translucent colors in yellow, orange, red or green with a fluff of white against a dark or black background fill his canvases in sloping movements that seem to flow into each other like in a panoramic landscape, or floating clouds, intriguingly transparent against a dark sky.

Eugene Brands is as active as ever. He lives in Amsterdam. Most of his gouaches are made there, because of the limited space, reveals his daughter who represented him at the opening of the exhibit. The larger paintings, usually in oil paint, are made in his studio in Nunspeet, where he stays during summertime. Believing in continuous change to which everything is subjected, his works are evidence of his ability to absorb change in the most fascinating way. The glow emerging from within a dark background is a feature of the paintings, which continue to reflect the artist's cosmic sense accentuating hope and yearning at the same time.

The show runs until Feb. 14.