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| Technique: | oilpaint | |
| Date of exhibition: | Februari 17 - March 18, 2001 |
Rein Pol & Rob Møhlmann
self-portraits 1974-2001 and recent still lifes
Rein Pol
The 20 self-portraits made by the painter Rein Pol in the course of the last 25 years give us a fine oppurtunity to follow his development. The young Pol seems to be ambitious in a healthy way and wants to measure his skill with the Greatests. On an early self-portrait he looks at us in an almost cheeky Rembrandtesque way, and the link with this master is enforced by his own physical characteristics and his handling of the paint. Nevertheless, this small work from 1974 is already a true Pol.
 Rein Pol, A northern realist, detail, 1992, o/p. |
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After that we see him grow older and older. Of course things become very interesting when he returns to the same theme after twentyfive years, as is the case with the bathroom-mirror. It is inevitable that the older Pol is different, but he still is as ambitious as in his early years, of which his almost Grünewald-like face bears witness. Meanwhile the handling of the paint has become somewhat looser and the range of colours has slightly moved to a zone of beautiful greys. |
The works of Pol appear to have been painted quickly, but appearances deceive. Often he will repolish a work time after time, sometimes even after years and on rare occasions even after decades. Perhaps that too is a fine self-portrait of Pol as he is: confident but also eternally wavering. For: can things still be improved? And: what is really certain?
Rob Møhlmann
The razor-sharp still lifes of Møhlmann are as usual highly realistic. Because he consequently paints his pictures on a scale of one to one with his subjects, all the objects seem almost tangible, as though one could easily take them off the panel.
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Moreover, his still lifes often look very unsophisticated: no display of beautiful or traditional objects, but instead: blistered wood, a piece of paper, a broken pair of spectacles, a small bottle, even something trivial as a pencil sharpener with some shavings. In short: the things one usually ignores, but - when painted by Møhlmann - one suddenly looks at in astonishment.
In Møhlmanns works there are almost no self-portraits, although
there is a painting with the reflection of his face, seen in an old lid of a
gravy-pan. Or we see him glooming, very small, in the reflection of a
bottle. Are his still lifes in fact a kind of self-portraits in which he
disappears or hides himself? It is as if he tries to avoid the great
classical themes by zooming in on the small things of life, often
violated and neglected. Once he proclaimed in sober earnest:
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 Rob Møhlmann, Dinie's bottle, 2000, o/p, 18x21cm. |