Information

Harry Wedzinga
Joure (The Netherlands), 1960

From 1979 till 1983 I studied painting at the ‘Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten’ in the city of Kampen (The Netherlands). In particular the painter Guido Lippens has influenced me greatly. I still consider him as my artistic conscience for my painting.

About my work

It’s not easy to tell about your own art work. There is no final judgment, because my work is a constant process of progression and development. What I can say about it is that at this point my development as an artist has been a struggle between stagnation due to doubt and progression during more productive periods.

At the time in 1983, after finishing art school, painting was very alive and received lots of attention from the media. On the one hand it was very expressive and often figurative ‘Neue Wilden’ on the other hand there was a minimalistic and autonomous movement. During these times of seemingly controversial trends, I started to develop myself as a visual artist. I felt a strong inner tendency to choose for one or the other. Now, I don’t feel this so strong anymore and I am able to let things come to me and experience them for what they are. This way I am much more relaxed with the things that I encounter.

Much of my earlier work expresses a certain quietening. When I look back at this time I realize that this work came about mostly during nightly hours with often background music playing from ‘Eric Satie’ (mp3). This work touched an essential part of me. My recent work is quite different from my earlier work but also represents an important part of my personality. In general my work could be described as non-objective. Thus, without a conscious reference to visual reality. Often enough this kind of work is looked at as hard to understand since people in general like to make a direct link to reality. Maybe a comparison to music is more justified. Music is often enjoyed and experienced without certain limitations. Still, most music does not imitate reality but is an autonomous language.