Artist:		Herman van Hoogdalem & Gerard van de Weerd
Technique:		water colour and egg tempera
Date of exhibition:		November 16 - December 15, 2002

The last exhibition of this year at Museum Møhlmann is a very special one. At the centre are not only works of both artists, but also a series of large-scale water colours which were made jointly.

Herman van Hoogdalem en Gerard van de Weerd, Nude, 2002, water colour, 170x80cm. | zoom |

There is almost no greater ego than that of an artist. And this has been the case from times immemorial. However, originality is less a thing of all times. A few centuries ago, for instance, it was no disgrace at all for a painter to work in the manner of Rembrandt, Caravaggio or Rubens. At that time it was quite common for, let's say, a well-known painter of landscapes, to commission a colleague to put men or beast on the canvas, simply because in this area the colleague was more skilful. The aim was not so much to be original, but to deliver a good painting. Nowadays an approach like that is unthinkable. Yet Gerrad van de Weerd (1952) and Herman van Hoogdalem (1956) ventured to do so. Together they wanted to create man-sized water colours (80x170cm). The aim was a good painting, but also: to really made as a joint effort, not just the one painter painting this object and the other painting another. To avoid this, they chose the nude as their subject. That's one object, so go ahead.

We have to admit: both painters are real paint-fanatics. They received a fine training at the Academy Minerva and their works display a strong congeniality. However, when they took up their plan about a year ago, a long period of planning and learning was essential. The large size was a problem. A water colour-brush is very pliable, but on this scale such brushes quickly give the effect of a dishcloth. The cheap assortment of house painting stuff at a DIY-store was a real godsend: with flat brushes, tar brushes and brushes normally used to whitewash walls, fine results were possible. The porcelain palette was substituted by a dozen of plastic dinner-trays. And a lot of paper was needed; anyone with shares in this kind of industry must have noticed a firm increase in prices at the beginning of this year.

Gerard van de Weerd, Landscape in the south of France, 2002, water colour, 17x21cm. | zoom | Herman van Hoogdalem, Blue interior, 2002, egg tempera, 14x21cm. | zoom |

Almost every week the two painters met to study the choreography of their unique water ballet. Of course, the trick is not to step on each others toes and to minimize the use of one's elbows. This took awhile, for it is easy to recognize one's strength, but hard to admit one's weakness. But when ego became the wallflower and honesty the partner, form and colour melted into a passionate performance. Seven times they succeeded in finishing off their water-ballet. These seven works are to be seen at the museum. Meanwhile the egošs of both painters didn't suffer much: many strong individual works of each of them are also exhibited.