I.M. Enrico Castellani

 The picture shows a box decorated with a staff.  It is the container of the staff entitled: I.M. Enrico Castellani (and numbered #81).  

     The painted container and the sculpture  are my tributes to Enrico Castellani’s works of art; his formalist poems in silver and white. Most of all I like his paper stack. Spartito, 1969/2004.  
(Read more of Enrico Castellani in The Guardian)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It is also a tribute to Celleno where he lived until his death in December 2017. Celleno where I like to work in wintertime.  Celleno reminds me of the village I grew up in. All people connected. Connectivity and reunion are my subjects in my art practice. 

     In the village I grew up in, there lived a painter at the time. His studio was located between kindergarten and home.  At a friend’s house during primary school, I saw one of his gloomy but yet intriguing paintings of a swamp. Before I left the village to go to high-school, I tried to get up the nerve to interview him in his studio. 
He answered my questions while he was working on a painting. At one point he pushed his brush in purple paint – I was afraid he was distracted or irritated because of my questions and would soon spoil the painting with this ugly purple. The opposite happened, the painting gained more meaning instead! It was an eye-opening event!   
     In Celleno I hoped for an equally inspiring meeting, but in fact I was a  month too late; when I arrived in January 2018 Enrico Castellani had just passed away, aged 87.  
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 Some months later I made these ‘poems’ in black, white and gold dedicated to the artist Enrico Castellani and his direct environment.   
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Staff # 81 I.M. Enrico Castellani

Mother & Child

Inspired by the medieval polychromatic wooden sculptures of mother and child, Frank Bezemer explores contemporary relationships between mother and child. ( Anneke with staf # 97, also known as maatstaf II, and Taeke with staf #14 )

Lotta Continua 

Staff # 53.     92cm/ 36 ‘

< # 52. >  # 54

 

Fai del bene e sii felice

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Maria Salvatori con il bastone n. 24, nel suo giardino assieme ai suoi polli.  

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Staff # 24.  139 cm  54 inch

Also known as: For Raymond Hains I

< # 23   >  # 25

Passages 2024

Welkom op mijn studio op zaterdag 13 en zondag 14 april 2024 

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Speciaal voor buurtbewoners is er de tentoonstelling  P a s s a g e s georganiseerd met werk van mijn collega’s en mij.  

 U kunt op zaterdag 13 en zondag 14 april 2024  tussen 11.00u en 17.00u komen kijken naar de binnenkant van het gebouw en de kunstwerken die er gemaakt zijn.  En desgewenst in gesprek gaan met de kunstenaar. 
(meer informatie over de foto getiteld: Study! onderaan in cursief.) 
Entree € 5,-   Dobbelmannweg 5 6531KT Nijmegen.  
 
Especially for local residents the exhibition P a s s a g e s has been organised with works by my colleagues and me.      You can come on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 April 2024 between 11am and 5pm to see the inside of the building and the artworks created there.  And engage in conversation with the artist if you wish. 
 
Entrance fee € 5 ,-
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About the photo titled Study! read more below

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The photo shows the door to my studio.  From the left to the right: Two toddlers in memory of the former kindergarten, Emeritus Professor of Educational Studies at Radboud University Theo Bergen reenacting the statue on the frontside of the studio-building,  and a delicate balancing staff # 31.

The building in which my studio is located has a statue of Johanna de Lestonnac on the front facade. She has a book in her hands, to emphasize the importance of education. Johanna de Lestonnac was a woman who began educating girls in Bordeaux in the 16th century.

The building was part of a large Roman Catholic complex, with a church, a rectory, a cemetery, a convent and a variety of schools.
The building was originally built as a boarding school for girls. Then in 1931 it was transformed into a kindergarten. And in 1989, the building was converted into studios for artists.

 

 Staff # 31