Daan & Rembrandt Research Wendelien Daan By Willemijn Jongbloed Group D October 2009

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1 Daan & Rembrandt Research Wendelien Daan By Willemijn Jongbloed Group D October 2009 Doing Dutch Often, the work of many Dutch artist; photographers, designers, and painters is easy to recognize among works of international artist. Dutch labels like Droog Design, Victor&Rolf and Orson+Bodil but also Inez van Lamsweerde and Wendelien Daan all seem to have this Dutch signature. It s not only the contemporary artist, however, that has this Dutch signature. Even the Old Dutch painters made work with a typical Dutch feeling. The work of recent artists can be related to those paintings. Wendelien Daan fits in this Dutch signature with her images of high fashion photos for big international magazines. But what is the Dutch signature" exactly? And how come most of us in the Netherlands seem to work the same way? According to photographers, magazines and models that work with Dutch artists, the cause of this difference the way we work. Is that something we ve learned at school, are we raised this way or is it part of our folklore? To find an answer to this very broad question I will only look at Dutch photography and painting, to make my research possible. Gone with the Wind My research is inspired by the Gone with the Wind exhibition at the Zuiderzeemuseum and especially Wendelien Daan s contribution. Her explanation of how she came to this image was the main inspiration to my research question. Wedelien Daan participated in the exhibition Gone with the wind at the Zuiderzeemuseum last summer. Her picture, portrait of six, shows us six young girls in traditional costume standing in a meadow. Her idea for the picture was to show the similarities between old and new design. Wedelien Daan: Het idee in 1e instantie was het laten zien van oude en nieuwe ontwerpen en de herhaling/overeenkosten die je daarin kunt vinden. Alles gaat in een golfbeweging, en dus ook in de mode. Het beeld wat ik ermee gemaakt heb maakt van de groep meisjes een vorm en het straalt een tijdloosheid uit die ik vaak zoek in mijn beelden. (At first the idea was to show old and new design and the repetition/similarities between them. Everything comes back as a wave, even in fashion. The image I made of the girls and the form shows that it s ageless, something I always look for in my images.) The exhibition at the Zuiderzeemuseum is very much inspired by the Dutch fashion world nowadays combined with Dutch folklore. Many well-known Dutch artists were asked by Alexander van Slobbe en Franscisco van Benthum to participate. Daan s image fits very much in with the work of the other Dutch artists participating; they all have this Dutch signature. Her idea of combining old and new design caught my attention because it is not only the clothes she photographs that is folklore, also her image itself can be related to our folklore.

2 Portrait of six by Wendelien Daan for Gone of the Wind

3 What s in common? What do Dutch artist have in common? Let s look at the characteristics of Dutch work first, starting with Wendelien Daan. Daan s models have hard faces, and seem to look unreal, surrealistic and are often not typical beautiful girls. She is interested in her models, in what they have to tell. She likes to work with girls that have something unique, not the girls that are just beautiful. The models she uses are often not so perfect. Daan uses very minimalist lightning and the surrounding is close to nothing. The light she uses give her images this well-known Dutch feeling, yet it s recognizable as Daan s work. Especially the harsh shadows and mysterious feeling in the photos is Dutch. Daan lights her models from one side, which makes the images look natural (sunlight also comes from one side). Rembrandt is also a Dutch artist I want to look at because he is always referred to the Netherlands and the fact that he s Dutch. His paintings are seen as really Dutch, and this is not without a reason. What is this Dutch aspect in his paintings? Rembrandt worked differently than most other artist of his time, as he was very much interested in the subject he was painting instead of money. Where most other artists were really interested in money, Rembrandt cared a lot about subject matter. Also, his use of light was inventive because he used it the highlight certain parts of his painting to make them more important. Rembrandt s portraits are always lighted from one side, which is something also seen in Daan s images. But although Rembrandt s work is really Dutch he was nevertheless very much inspired by French and Italian artists Inez van Lamsweerde, another famous Dutch photographer, is someone I want to look at as well. She is seen as the first big Dutch photographer, together with her partner Vinoodh. Daan seems to be very much influenced by van Lamsweerde. Van lamswerde s images are very sharp and perfect in the sense that her models look really cool and unreal. She is seen as very innovative and a pioneer in the photography scene. Her images are very esthetical pleasing, as well as the images of Daan and the paintings of Rembrandt. Lonneke Engel (model) in L Officiel: Mijn favoriete Nederlandse fotografen zijn Inez&Vinoodh. Zij zijn zeer, zeer belangrijk in de fashion scene op dit moment. Hele goede fotografen. Ik had veel geluk dat ik met ze mocht werken in 2007 en hopelijk kunnen we dit vaker doen. De foto s waren verbazingwekkend. Prachtig, natuurlijk en Dutch. Een goede combinatie. ( My favorite Dutch photographers of this moment are Inez&Vinoodh. They re very very important in the fashion scene at this moment. They re really good photographers. I had a lot of luck I had to work with them in 2007 and hopefully we can do this more often. The pictures were incredible. Beautiful, natural and Dutch. A good combination.) Vermeer, an Old Dutch painter, fits the Dutch signature too. His paintings of girls not only show us the Dutch folklore, but have also inspired many artists after him. He uses the natural daylight coming from the window to light his models and he places them in a natural surrounding. Nevertheless his paintings have something mysterious and feel untouchable. Something we ve seen in Daan s images, Rembrandt s dark paintings and van Lamsweerde s chocking photographs. Dutch artist have always been really open-minded in the time they worked, we ve broken many taboos. This is something not always seen with other international artists. Dutch artist dare to use technics in a new way, make chocking art or try new things. It s not realistic to say that there s just one Dutch way of working or that every Dutch artist works the same. That is also not what I tried to prove. It is this Dutch signature that interested me and that can be found in many works of Dutch artist. We are open-minded, innovative, down-to-earth and new which applies to the artist we ve looked at. Especially the use of light is very much important in the

4 work of Dutch artists. Concluding it is the Dutch light and the Dutch way of working that makes Dutch art Dutch. Vermeer & Wendelien Daan The Dutch light Wendelien Daan is mostly working for international fashion companies. Nevertheless, she is always referred to the Netherlands. That s because her pictures have, although used all over the world, a Dutch feeling. Daan captures a certain emotion in her pictures by her play with light. Light has an important meaning, causing high-contrast and al lot of darkness in her models. Does the fact that her work is so easily recognizable as Dutch has something to do with our history or folklore? Wendelien Daan: Het is meer de historie en religie wat Nederlanders/ Nederland maakt wat ze zijn/t is. Het koele, kale, sobere, donkere, contrastrijke uit religie en schilderkunst spreekt mij aan, omdat het de juiste sfeer en gevoel oproept welke ik in mijn fotos wil laten zien. (It is more the history and religion what makes Dutch people and the Netherlands who they are. The empty, sober, hard, dark and high contrast of our religion and painting is what inspires me the most because it evokes a feeling and atmosphere I want to show in my pictures.) This typical Dutch signature that Wendelien Daan shows in her images by the use of light and the minimalistic way of working is something that has started centuries ago with the Dutch painters. Jan van Eyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, many painters from the Gold Are, van Gogh but also the more recent work of Charley Toorop all have this special Dutch way of lightning their subjects. People in their paintings are mostly lighted from one side or, as it is with the potato-eaters from van Gogh, from one source, which causes high contrast and dark shadows. Also portraits, like the girl with the pearl earring, are lightened from one side in most Dutch paintings. It is the most natural lighting, which appeals a lot to Dutch artist. The work of painters centuries ago have a lot of similarities with Daan s photography work today, as well with the work of other contemporary artists.

5 The Dutch are working The Dutch way of working is something that s really appreciated internationally. We are down-to-earth, direct and easy to work with. However there s not a good platform here in the Netherlands for most artist to work. Dutch magazines don t have the big amount of money to spend for shoots as in the States, because the Netherlands is way smaller. Some Dutch artists will therefore work in the States where the international advertisement business is based. Wendelien Daan: De stijl die ik nu heb, en die is veel te streng voor Nederlandse advertenties. Al die dingen die ze hier doen hebben niets met mij te maken.' (The style that I ve developed now is too severe and stylized for Dutch advertisements.) All the things they do here don t have anything to do with my work ) Although Europe has more history and a bigger folklore, America has a bigger platform and more money for artists. Wendelien Daan: Ik denk dat het een vastgeroeste gedachte is dat Europeanen creatiever zouden zijn door de cultuur. Die gedachte is niet echt meer actueel. Er zijn in Amerika ook genoeg creatieven die fantastisch werk maken. (I think the thought of European people as more creative people because of their culture is not really up-to-date anymore. There re are plenty of Americans that deliver great work nowadays. ) If Dutch Folklore has a big influence on the work of Dutch artist is not quite easy to say. Wendelien Daan: Zou kunnen dat onze Nederlandse folklore van invloed is op het werk van de kunstenaars maar ik weet niet of je dit van iedereen kunt zeggen. Het zal zeker een rol spelen net zo goed als opleiding. Academies in Nederland zijn ook op een bepaalde manier zeer sturend. (It s a good possibility that Dutch artist are influences by our Dutch folklore but I m not sure if you can say this about everyone. It will definitely play a role, as well as the education. Academies in the Netherlands steer their students in a certain direction too.) Bibliography: Interview with Wendelien Daan Interview Wendelien Daan voor Hollands Licht, November L Officiel, April 2008 La Vie en Rose, februari/march 2009 RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie) Tales , book by Wendelien Daan