RUUD VAN EMPEL

SUNDAY CHAPTER
Solo Show, introduction by the gallery

In the photographic works of artist Ruud van Empel (Breda, 1958) the subjects seem to have time to stand and stare: time to evaluate, to be part of nature, to watch their dreams.
Utilizing his fixed artistic canon of a relative absence of perspective, his use of a certain ‘flatness’ of image, combined with his chief concern with light, space and (non) movement, Van Empel brings about images which are both beautiful and strong. There is an inherent beauty, tranquility, nature and pureness. Yet the softness of his tone, though, in no way diminishes the sharpness of his work.There is a sort of attendant pressure as well: an invisible complication: something that looms over these idyllic scenes. The real-life-like children of Ruud van Empel often appear in the same way that their paradisiacal emerald surroundings seem disturbed and interrupted; the closer you look, the more, the dominant, harsher side of reality intrudes on the idyll. This is something which has a great impact on what at first glance appears to be just a pretty picture. It is not. If you get it, you notice Ruud van Empel’s underlying concept of genuine concern on how unsettling reality can be.

From 06 October – 10 November 2012 to see in the gallery.
In 2012 Van Empel added a new chapter to his oeuvre: ‘Sunday’. In a way he composed these “French gardens” with their characteristic symmetrical lines as an accurate background for his subjects, boys and girls, to wander in. With ‘Sunday # 9’ Van Empel uses a horizontal line now separating the earth and the sky, establishing a different perspective with the emphasis on the face, as if he decided to change his angle.