Robert Geveke - Maquillage
About this activity.
In his solo exhibition Maquillage – the French word for make-up – visual artist Robert Geveke (Heerenveen, 1973) shows a series of new drawings and paintings. Geveke shows different styles in his work: on the one hand the fast, associative and narrative drawing and painting style and on the other hand the thoughtful, almost static pastel drawings. It can best be described as a fusion of biographical associations, art historical references and images from mass media/pop culture in which man in relation to his environment is central. The drawings are the starting point for his paintings and pastel drawings.
In addition, Geveke shows pastel portraits inspired by the rococo and the figurative pastel drawings of Rosalba Carriera, a 17th and 18th century Italian artist. She portrayed her models, with heavily powdered faces, as a kind of aesthetic mask. Upper-class men and women wore as much makeup as possible to relate to the nobility. An echo of this can be felt in today's society, where it mainly concerns a digital mask. Just think of the filters on social media apps and the pursuit of the ideal image of the 'Instagram model'.
In his more narrative pastel drawings, the contrast of the intense colors and the light that dominates the images is effectively used as a means to visualize existential events - such as loss, longing, hope and farewell. The universal story of absence and loss is treated as a light, yet melancholic factor in Geveke's world.
In his paintings, the artist brings together a combination of empathy and emotional power in the genre of figurative art. Sometimes clumsy, vulnerable and searching, but also self-conscious. Geveke's paintings make us aware of how appearances are carefully constructed and codified, whether on Instagram or in a family album. They alert us to the endless nuance of bodily expression; the countless ways we mask, but also reveal, ourselves.
Robert Geveke studied at AKI ArtEZ Academy for Art & Design in Enschede and De Ateliers in Amsterdam. He received the Bunning Brongers Prize twice and received a work grant and the Starting Stipend from the Mondriaan Fund.
Museum Belvédère.
Location.
Afslag BLV
Minckelersstraat 11
8442 CE Heerenveen
www.museumbelvedere.nl/nl/