Jan Vrijman Karel Appel, ‘Brought to light by a DAAD to show his beauty’’
Jan Vrijman and Karel Appel, ‘Brought to light by DAAD to show his beauty’ is the title of the painting Appel made for camera of filmmakerVrijman in 1961.
The 2 × 2 meters canvas has a hole in the middle. As a result, Jan filmed the intense way of painting that is so famous for Karel. Directly from the tube he squeezed the paint onto the canvas or hit the thick blobs of paint against it. Everywhere thick blobs and splashes of paint, on top of each other, or splattered at the bottom edge. This method is not without risks for the preservation of the paint layers. Now 50 years later, at the request of the current owners – the Vrijman heirs – the painting has been assessed on conditions by painting conservator Marjan de Visser. She then wrote a conservation proposal proposing to prevent imminent paint loss by consolidating the blobs where necessary. For this, she selected various adhesives with specific properties. All brush strokes.
to view the photos of the conservation click on