Interview Officina do Pensamento [part I]

When did you start painting ? And when it was your first professional exhibition?
I started to paint like everybody else – in my youth. In my teens I was more interested in music and I learned myself how to play piano and guitar. Meanwhile
it seemed that I had some kind of talent in drawing. I started to paint more seriously at the age of 19. To become an artist was very importent to me; my friends and
I fully agreed that being an artist was the best thing you could do in life, the highest stage, the most importent occupation in society. Maybe it had something to do
with the overestimation of self-expression in those days (I grew up in the seventies which was, unlike the sixties, actually a rather boring period in Holland; a lot of institutions we have in our society nowadays got their shape and the creative outburst of the sixties – although it seems clear that the artists in the fifties were
of greater importance and the art in that decennium was much more interesting- was over).

zelfportret, olie/linnen, 70 x 70 cm

Finally I had my first exhibition in the city of Den Haag. I sold a rather large painting.
That same summer of 1982 I went to the University of Amsterdam to study art history. And I met Hans Min, who became not only my best friend, but we also started to work together, painting together on the same canvasses. His talent
is enormous. We wanted to paint like the jazzmusicians make music. Sometimes
we still work together, making statues of wax. The best ones we turn into bronzes and we have met some succes.
During my years at the university we still continued exhibiting our paintings. And
I discovered video. I made an educational video for the archaeological museum of Amsterdam and was nominated for the Sony Video Award Holland.
In 1988 I finished my study at the university and I first started to work as a director, making videos at the university. Soon I lost my interest (although I still make some videos occasionally) and I concentrated on painting, nothing but painting.

Why did you use oil paintings as your style? Any specific reason?
I like oil because it has a very rich and lively surface. If I compare it with acrylics, this plastic paint looks dead and cheap. Acrylic is suited for painters who have a lack of skills and it is a fact that oil is much more difficult to work with.

Heartfelt thanks to Paula Valéria de Andrade, jornalista & escritora, for this interview  

Bernard de Wolff (1 November 1955 in Amsterdam)
is a Dutch painter of contemporary cityscapes, cows, landscapes and nudes.
His work is represented in art collections in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, the United States, Suriname, China, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and Brazil.

info@nostrolunedi.it
www.nostrolunedi.it

info
info@liricigreci.it
www.liricigreci.it