Reinier Berendsen
Paintings,

Paintings by the young Dutch artist Reinier Berendsen (1973) are "realistic" in the sense that with seeming accuracy they represent the reality of everyday moments in a contemporary city, as we can observe them all around us. The term "Realism" dates back to the nineteenth century and the rise of this art movement was one of the results of the Industrial Revolution. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) advocated a form of art which takes "the heroism of modern life" as a subject. And indirectly Reinier Berendsen answers to this call two centuries later. His townscapes with their squares, streets and canals bear witness to all positive and negative achievements of the present time, and far into the future they may be better appreciated for portrait of the era they paint. His towns bathe in a clear light, sometimes a Dutch light, but in any case a light intensely felt by him. Thus he continues a long tradition of Dutch painters (from Johannes Vermeer with his unrivalled "View of Delft" to the 19th –century painter Cornelis Springer, who is considered to the best townscape painter of his day).

In the unmistakably 21st-century paintings by Reinier Berendsen the first thing you notice is his technical mastery, then immediately the surprise (or shock) follows over the total absence of people. The squares, streets and canals are deserted. The silence is deafening. Berendsen is a talented portraitist as well, so it is definitely not a lack of competence. The immediate cause for banishing people was a television documentary on the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who in 1999 delivered a notorious lecture by the title of "Rules of a Human Park". Summarized, one of the things the philosopher claims in this lecture is that humanistic era is closed as a result of the rise of mass culture. He falls back on the question previously asked by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976): "Where is Man?"; a question Heidegger himself answered with "In the World". Sloterdijk thinks this is a vague answer, and therefore he introduces the term "Human Park". His thesis is that "Man must get used to the idea of living in a park, where the authenticity is a lost ideal".

As it were, Berendsen is showing a Human Park, without passing judgement or drawing conclusions by the way. And seeing in the viewer involuntarily asks himself the question: Where is Man? Berendsen knows where man is: everywhere. But the concrete presence of man is not (or no longer) interesting to him. The signs bearing witness to human interference are sufficient. He regards himself a "painting journalist": "painting beautifully is not the point, but a form of finding the truth, of watching is. His labour-intensive paintings (he produces some 10 works annually) have been elaborated down to the smallest detail. There is an awful lot to be seen and the show a love as well as a knowledge of architecture.

As the same time the emptiness of his townscapes has a magic touch – the undisturbed viewer can have a good look around and sees everyday parts of a city in an entirely new fashion – and the also have something oppressive; an eerie feeling of loneliness, as if you were the sole survivor of an indescribable disaster. But the sun is shining and hey, perhaps everything will turn out for the best after all…

Only the painter's own little travel trunk remains behind in each painting, as a concrete proof of his presence. And although Berendsen has indeed left a part of himself behind, he has long gone to another place. Always in search of the light, reflected in the water or distorting a fragment of the Human Park in the grille of a New York yellow cab.

November 2006
Annelette Hamming