Art & Critique » Jiddje Straatsma

Jiddje Straatsma: Still Life with Footwear

elijah — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:00 +0000

It’s funny how a piece of art in one branch of the discipline can lead to ramblings on another, in a different branch. A blessed interconnectedness! About a year ago I browsed videoart.net, a website dedicated to an eponymous offshoot of cinematic artistic expression, watched a few videos, and even registered. There are some stunning clips there, and it’s worth a visit. One episode in particular (can’t remember which) caught my attention: recorded by a hand held camera, it presented a series of takes and images seen from first person view; one of the scenes dwelt for a few seconds on the shoes of the camera person, from the exact same angle that you see in the painting below.

Cut, next scene. A few months ago I watched a cute indie film called Me and You and Everyone We Know. The protagonist is a young woman, an aspiring video artist, who meets a guy, later to become her love interest, who sells shoes (another convenient coincidence). At one point of the movie a video art piece fills the screen and, behold, the shoes again, seen right from above. I realized right there that this is a generic recurring motif, a prevalent visual metaphor used by the artists for self-referential purposes, among others. The movie cemented in my memory the existence of an exciting art form and how shoes may relate to it aesthetically and conceptually.

The difference in Jiddje’s paintings, however, is that the shoes displayed in his work do not cover any feet. But this is where a method acting principle fills the void (and I promise to end this moving picture rampage): some actors interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio claim to adhere to the “from the outside to the inside” doctrine, choosing apt shoes being the first step in character building and transformation. What I want to say is that the painter, just like that video artist and the actor/director in the movie encourages us to “fill in” the shoes, and take the risk of impersonating someone else, if only in our imagination. Walking in someone else’s shoes may be a single most powerful lesson in empathy, they remind us all.

As if to further this idea, the artist paints footwear made for both sexes, from various historic periods and social settings. He covers a wide scope of topics within a narrow category, creating a sense of satiation, locally cathartic in a way, especially considering the above context. The shoes themselves, however banal, may imply many folk wisdoms and sayings. A painting thus receives the status of a keyword in a subject index, the book itself being the mind and memory — and the desire to fertilize them with new material.

Jiddje Straatsma: Landscapes

elijah — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:29:41 +0000

It may be hard to believe that these landscapes are contained each within an approximately 10×10 inches frame, but the reproductions before you are not very far from the actual size. I think that there are two different consequences to consider as a result: first, the artist creates a credible illusion of a generous spatial reserve and second, he leaves you wanting for more, and of a bigger size — and the first condition indicates that it is within his artistic range. And by “more” I also mean zooming both in and out, though some pieces satisfy that wish at least partially. I can’t help recalling of some of Ivan Shishkin’s works when studying Jiddje’s, though the differences outweigh the similarities.

Jiddje noted in a comment to the previous post that landscapes are his “comfort zone.” I would like to take on the job of expounding how his confidence in the genre interprets into technical terms. Strongly defined focal points coax the beholder into the scenery, the planes of which are often dissected by paths emphasizing the perspective. Lighter tones border the far edges, fully in accordance with the painterly precept of creating convincing depth. Low-key palette leads to a mastery of subtle hue gradations — a virtue out of the necessity of staying close to the primordial color (treatment of light, I think, is where the landscapes betray a realist quality). Together, these features inform an assured hand.

A notable shift in rhythm between the background and the center adds interest: while the hills or the tree tops touching the sky are usually arranged in a uniform fashion, the few trees enjoying a full size rendering often perform a more whimsical compositional dance. Sometimes a single tree would spread across the sky, creating a net of colors, in other cases it will bend or suggest a variety of comical situations with accompanying smaller shapes. Thus the artist strives to overcome visual complacency, appealing to geometric and pattern perceptions, selecting from more universal principles of the art form.

If I had to boil it all down to a few words, I would choose control and harmony. The former underlies and supports the latter, in a way reflecting a wish not to interfere with nature, though both traits, of course, have been masterminded. There is a general sense that everything is right where it’s supposed to be; the natural viewing angle and warm palette make for a releasing viewing experience. These paintings project an objective introduction to the artist’s habitat and offer a warm and instructive welcome.

Jiddje Straatsma

elijah — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:16:32 +0000

Jiddje Straatsma is a Dutch painter and graphic designer who works in a wide range of genres, including landscape, still life and portraits, and publishes his work on the Internet on this website and this blog. Jiddje is outspoken about his hard work ethic and demanding self criticism; I would like to bring to your attention how his paintings oscillate between realism and impressionism, different pieces careening towards either style, in a way reflecting this struggle. In traditional terms his artwork offers soft impressionism, considerably tamed, or “civilized” by realist figuration — reflecting some of John Singer Sargent’s ambitions. Similarly to the American master, one can identify in Jiddje’s work a search towards a unique personal adaptation of the two trends, seeking an individual original coalescence. That is not an easy task even without considering the competition, and Jiddje holds his own.

The stylistic duality is traceable in probably every aspect of the artist’s output. Impressionistic brushwork is fast, at times impetuous and intense, while the more realistic pieces disclose painstaking precision. Light may cascade in shafts, drowning objects in luminosity, or gingerly tinge the exposed areas. These features, while spreading across the artist’s oeuvre, generate particular interest when colliding in a single painting, such as the still life you see below. The left side of the scene is suffused with light that tints the palette, which gradually darkens as the light weakens — rendering the right side as more realistic (in the generic meaning of the term).

On a psychological level, the painting combines vibrant optimism with cautious realism; we witness the of the two, which translates into a harmonious coexistence. Indeed, I think that harmony, event hunt for it characterizes many of Jiddje’s paintings. In a freer associative play the whole body (literally) of work may also be seen as a dichotomous organism. Blood supply would hence represent harmony, which travels from the heart, the impressionistic streak, to the mind, the realist balance, constantly mediating between the two. The said optimism and realism, as you may already have guessed, are the humours of this “body.”

I think the artist’s choice of palette — usually lusterless, restrained and quietly intense — manifests national qualities, drawing from one of the most glorious of European painterly traditions. The pitcher in particular reminds me of that in Vermeer’s The Kitchen Maid; though of a different color, the milk pouring out of it is of a hue close to that of contemporary rendering. The glowing blues in some of the backgrounds display a van Goghian flavor. The artist may be quoting the masterpieces, positioning his art in a broad artistic and historic context.

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