The World of Gertrud D panta rhei

Streaming. It’s what first comes to my mind as a good way to characterize Gertrud D’s work. It is an

incessant flow of forms and colours, a river of movement. Waves of curls and circles, a maelstrom of

attraction and repulsion. A galaxy of suns, moons and stars, dust and spirals, explosions, vortices.

This movement is not confined to her paintings. A similar avalanche seems to reign, permanently, in

Gertrud’s atelier, a 300 square meter loft in old Amsterdam, right above her spacious living quarters.

Hundreds of canvasses stand four rows deep against the walls. The artist seems in constant motion,

arranging and rearranging canvases. They keep her company, they talk to her, and by extension to her

professional guests. Now she picks this, then that work, gauging their conversation, both with each

other and with her. She hates to give them a final place on the wall, to let them become static. They

have to be hung and rehung, rearranged into different standing positions on the floor: an arc, a criss-

cross, at angles - where they can debate, evoke conflict or provide contrast, each time with a new

energy. Until at last they come to a provisional rest as a balanced network of colours and volumes,

a harmony where tension seems momentarily resolved. Such rest points occur in the studio, as they

also do in her home downstairs. They interact with carefully selected furnishings, forming curious

installations as backdrops for the numerous social occasions taking place in a half public, half private

atmosphere. Gertrud’s relationship to her art is engaging, testing, challenging. A work is hardly ever

finished, and when it is proclaimed to be, it is often only temporarily so. Any canvas may show a corner

or a side that opens itself up for further development by yet another retouching, by adding a layer, or

even by removing something. The titles of her works exist in this same realm of suspension. They can

well remain anonymous, or once defined can change over time. A work already baptized with a name

may, over the years, cry out for a better title, one that more precisely reflects its meaning or better suits

the artist’s mood. Or it may assume a position in relation to later work, with which it may well turn out

to form a series. Everything flows, nothing remains the same, a feast of meaningful impermanence – a

true poetics of our times.

photograph © hesmerg.nl
 Where does this essential fluidity come from? Was it always there? What does it mean? And techniques, the performance of minimalist exercises (“Japanese rhythms”) and by creating larger-than-

most importantly, where is it going? life lyrical expressionist works, respectively. It is in this latest, most prominent stage where Gertrud

A holistic approach was present right from the start of Gertrud’s artistic career in theatre during the arguably finds her true signature by combining a deep-felt skin sensitivity and expressive lyricism with

second half of the sixties. Later, in her own company Groep Gertrud D (1985-1988), she not only a message about movement, creativity and the universe.

produced or directed, but, significantly, both created the costumes and assumed the design of set and Much of Gertrud’s earlier experiences are subsumed and can be easily detected in these

stage. A sense of performance, echoes of the fascinations she had in her previous careers, has never large recent canvasses. Still present is the physical building-up of the ground, referencing the color

been far away from Gertrud’s later visual work. It is present in the process of creation, in the physical experiments of the earlier monochrome planes. With these, she tried to answer questions about the

engagement with shapes and light, and in the application of pigments on canvas or paper, often through nature of painting, “How blue is blue?”, while at the same time making the paint visible in its corporeal

a haiku-like artistic choreography combining one broad swoosh with one contrasting colour field and state. The oily paste, once applied generously, will crackle, bubble, ripple. The paint itself becomes

one sharp line. Within each work this presence can be felt in the acute awareness of the edge of each a presence, made manifest by its physicality alone. Gertrude’s canvasses thus gain an additional

picture frame. What the artist has depicted performs within this confine. In her later work, perhaps dimension: a living skin, call it ‘life’. This becomes palpable whenever an earlier phase of a work is

not coincidentally, the frames are often sublimated into the work itself, their broad decorative surfaces being eradicated, or improved, by overpainting in white. The basic ground, the surface, is still there,

enlarging it, or carrying a contrapuntal design to it, while effectively isolating the main area from the its relief visible. But like a palimpsest, the new drawing carries the mark of its past. These works grow

outside world, much as the frame of a theatre stage isolates and focuses attention. with the artist, tracing their own history as faces marked by time, their histories detectable with close

Since Gertrud began painting, in the mid-nineties, she has shown an interesting and, in a way, inspection by a careful eye.

remarkable development from figurative, sometimes decorative work to complex abstract expressions. A crucial moment in Gertrude’s development was a short stay, in de mid-nineties, in the

At first her engagement was, in her own words, “figurative”, with her concentrating on portraits. A California studio of Sam Francis (1923-1994). Allowed to paint in his space, using his very materials,

simple, radiant kind of female half bust, which echoes a Madonna motif, were early manifestations – a brushes and pigments, she was deeply impressed. It is this remarkable older artist’s abstract

focus well-known throughout the grand European painting tradition. Gertrud’s efforts led incidentally expressionist works, in which he fused Jackson Pollock’s action painting and dripping techniques with a

into a preoccupation with decorative background, a focus on the play of surface patterns and textures sensitivity inspired by Japanese minimalism, that got Gertrude started on both the exploration of linear

reminding one, if anything, of Gustav Klimt. This penchant for backdrop and context would take on a drawing and on large, abundantly moving, multi-coloured paintings throbbing with life. Since then, a

life of its own, and would never quite leave Gertrud’s work. It is this intense working of the surface, steady retreat can be discerned in her paintings. Shapes are now increasingly being separated from

applying a myriad of techniques, from layering with various oils and acrylics to matting and stippling, backgrounds, contracting almost into solids: suggesting a sun, the moon, a womb, a homunculus. The

that on a micro level has shaped Gertrud’s artisan signature. It’s all about the skin, the surface of the layering and over-painting referred to above, sometimes in repetitive stages, of layers of white, add to

painting, which takes on its own life. this effect.

While being engrossed in material and surface treatment experiments, in the ensuing two No reflection on art can be complete without considering the artist’s intent. What is the artist’s

decades she deeply investigated the nature of monochromes with the application of dripping/splattering aim? Gertrud’s case is extraordinary. In earlier interviews, as in several in-depth tv documentaries,
she underscores the importance for her of the process of physical

engagement with the work: with brush, oil and acrylic, on paper or

linen. Painting thus acquires the quality of a joyous movement, “a

dance of my soul”. Themes, shapes, colour shades and compositional

decisions are discovered and made on the spot. The artist playfully lets

the work take shape as if by itself, only to later interfere in a more

director-like function – a hallmark of the mid-20th-century American

abstract expressionist movement. That being said, the end result of

Gertrud’s works may sometimes be as surprising to the artist as to

anyone else. Lewis Carroll would have been delighted. Knowing this

may help us appreciate the sometimes highly decorative aspects of her

work. But at the same time it should keep us from looking too closely

at the particular elements, instead gently persuading us to trust in

the overall impression each work may give. It is an experience more

Gestalt than one of parsing detail.

Gertrud’s work is emphatically non-narrative. It does not address the topical issues of today,

be they political, religious, ideological or otherwise. In contrast, both in their formal aspects and in the

process-focus of their creation, her work seems to be content to refer to experiments and experiences

of a previous generation. Yet it is perhaps precisely by being somewhat isolated, and gaining traction

and meaning in the context of the artist’s own studio and life that transform there areas into massive

Gesammtkunstwerke, offering an oasis of timeless vitality. Gertrud’s take on lyrical expressionism is a

counterpoint to the whirlwind of our times: paradoxically embodying movement at an almost impossibly

high degree in each work, between the works, and in the dynamic dialogue between the artist and her

creations. In this respect her work does indeed echo our times. Everything flows.

Dr Riemer R. Knoop
Everything flows, nothing
remains the same, a feast of
meaningful impermanence –
a true poetics of our times.
At first her engagement was, in her
own words, “figurative”, with her
concentrating on portraits. A simple,
radiant kind of female half bust, which
echoes a Madonna motif, were early
manifestations – a focus well-known
throughout the grand European painting
tradition. Gertrud’s efforts led incidentally
into a preoccupation with decorative
background, a focus on the play of
surface patterns and textures reminding
one, if anything, of Gustav Klimt.
 It is present in the process
of creation, in the physical
engagement with shapes and
light, and in the application
of pigments on canvas or
paper, often through a haiku-
like artistic choreography
combining one broad swoosh
with one contrasting colour
field and one sharp line.
Yet it is perhaps
precisely by being
somewhat isolated, and
gaining traction and
meaning in the context
of the artist’s own studio
and life that transform
these areas into massive
Gesammtkunstwerke,
offering an oasis of
timeless vitality.
Yet it is perhaps precisely
by being somewhat
isolated, and gaining
traction and meaning
in the context of the
artist’s own studio and
life that transform these
areas into massive
Gesammtkunstwerke,
offering an oasis of
timeless vitality.
Seven Square
Any canvas may show a corner or a side that opens itself up
for further development by yet another retouching, by adding a
layer, or even by removing something. The titles of her works
exist in this same realm of suspension. They can well remain
anonymous, or once defined can change over time.
In her later work, perhaps not
coincidentally, the frames are often
sublimated into the work itself, their
broad decorative surfaces enlarging it,
or carrying a contrapuntal design to
it, while effectively isolating the main
area from the outside world, much as
the frame of a theatre stage isolates
and focuses attention.
New Photo Here
The paint itself becomes a presence, made manifest by
its physicality alone. Gertrude’s canvasses thus gain an
additional dimension: a living skin, call it ‘life’.
Full painting here
(of detail on left)
 different frame for this

The paint itself becomes a presence, made

manifest by its physicality alone. Gertrude’s
canvasses thus gain an additional dimension: a
living skin, call it ‘life’. This becomes palpable
whenever an earlier phase of a work is being
eradicated, or improved, by overpainting in white.
The basic ground, the surface, is still there, its
relief visible. But like a palimpsest, the new
drawing carries the mark of its past. These works
grow with the artist, tracing their own history as
faces marked by time, their histories detectable
with close inspection by a careful eye.
A sense of performance, an
echo of the fascinations in her
previous career stages, has
never been far away from
Gertrud’s later visual work. It
is present both in the process
of creation, in the physical
engagement with shapes
and energized light, through
pigments on canvas or paper,
sometimes though a haiku-
like choreography combining
one broad swoosh with one
contrasting colour field and
one sharp line.
 Keizersgracht 493
1017 D M A m s t e r d a m
G E R T R U D D G A L L E R I E S THE NETHERLANDS
+ 31 20 423 4848 t el
+ 31 20 422 9720 f ax
i n f o @ g e r t r u d d g a l l e r i e s.c o m
The paint itself becomes a presence, made
manifest by its physicality alone. Gertrude’s
canvasses thus gain an additional dimension:
a living skin, call it ‘life’.
G E R T R U D D G A L L E R I E S

Keizersgracht 493
1017 DM A m s t e r d a m
THE NETHERLANDS

+ 31 20 423 4848 tel

+ 31 20 422 9720 fax
info@gertruddgalleries.com

vormgeving / graphic design

MURRAY LEMLEY

fotorafie / photography
ERIC 7 PETRA HESMERG

drukwerk / printing
Exclusive Art Books