Bob Negryn approaches the world around him as an interplay of colours and shapes, which he idiosyncratically captures in measured compositions. The Mondrian House is showing a selection of Negryn's fascinating and powerful floral compositions.
In his pictures, Negryn continues the tradition that began in 17th-century Dutch painting of finding beauty in the ordinary, the everyday. The Mondrian House selected several works from Negryn's floral series. For over a decade, Bob Negryn has been fascinated by flowers. In all stages of growth, flowering and decay. In his photographs, he very consciously plays with light, emphasising the beauty of the flower.
What is striking is that the flowers have been put in plastic bottles. It gives the whole thing a somewhat surrealistic feel. 'The provocative beauty of tulips and plastic bottles takes us out of our daily grind. So that we can celebrate life,' Negryn himself once said about it. The artist deliberately makes the objects in his photographs bigger and more important than they are to highlight our dependence on them, both practically and aesthetically. Practical because of their everyday use and aesthetic because of their shape and colour. Everyday and extraordinary at the same time.
Mondrian
Negryn's contemporary compositions bear resemblance to the floral still lifes of Piet Mondrian, whose earlier works could also focus heavily on depicting a single flower. Think of the amaryllis and chrysanthemum that Mondrian frequently captured. For Bob Negryn, capturing flowers is a way of accepting the fragility of our existence.
About Bob Negryn
Bob Negryn (Delft, 1961) graduated from the ArtEZ Academy of Visual Arts and Design in Arnhem in 1984, specialising in painting and photography. He mastered various photographic genres: landscapes, portraits and still lifes. In doing so, he couples his perspective of visual artist with the technical baggage of a professional photographer. Over the years, the work of Negryn, who lives alternately in the Netherlands and on Ireland's west coast, has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Outside the Netherlands, it has also been shown in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
Meet & Greet
Retrieved from Saturday 27 November and Saturday 18 December it is possible to meet Bob Negryn. The artist will be both days from 2.30pm at the museum to explain his work and answer questions.
