Artist:		Rob Møhlmann
Technique:		oil paint
Date of exhibition:		Februari 15 - March 17, 2002

Solo-exhibition Rob Møhlmann
"I merely follow the strokes of Time"

The solo-exhibition of Rob Møhlmann comprises about thirty-five paintings. A dried calabash, a piece of old glass, a weather-beaten roof hat, a broken jar and other trivia. If in these works there is one common denominator, it is undoubtedly decay. In this sense the true artist is certainly not the pathetic still-life painter from Venhuizen, but Time itself. The brush of this Master is never at rest, nor is he ever content, as he paints with blisters and bubbles; and scraping and sanding are all the world to him. He truely paints a cruel and terrible beauty.

Old domestic custom, 2001, o/p, 60x60cm. | zoom |

His flaming palette is to be feared indeed, as to him life is nothing more then just a sigh of death. No hut so well hidden, no cave so deep ? everywhere he will find his models. As in that particular chimney. It van be chilly in April, and so the stove is sometimes lit. But even this brief moment proved far too long for a mother with her three chicks. Through their distant round window-frame they never saw the sky for longer then a day or so. Oh yes, they took to the sky, but not on their wings. And the mother forbid herself her flight. An elderly couple handed the drama over to the painter. In a very common carrier bag, but truly this was a breathtaking still-life. The painter even gave them names: Mother, Hillary, Icarus and Benjamin. And he made a number of small portraits of their blistered beauty; for, five, right up to eight. And surely, he realized only too well that these would not sell like hot cakes, but he did not care, as for everything there is a time.

Chimney victim-Mother, 2001, o/p, 20,3x17,9 cm. | zoom |