Leon Willigendael

Leon Willigendael, Amsterdam (NL). www.willigendael.eu

I worked for thirty years on this canvas, since 1989 in a Amsterdam studio that I moved out on the first of May, 2014.

Time and death did not enable me to show the finished work to… two of my closest old friends. Both died recently. One of them, painter Jaap de Vries, commented on the palm garden in front of the studio building: ‘I know you would prefer some ancient Chinese landscape, but this weird courtyard is much closer to that unborn canvas. Even violence and beauty have changed, and maybe it’s all about the impossibility of finishing.’

H.E.A.R.T.[H.] Oil on canvas, 140×190 cm. 1984-2014

Advertisements