Wall Concepts - Minimal Art and Maximum Expression by Sigmund De Jong

 

The Dutch artist Sigmund De Jong (art education in Utrecht, Arnheim, and Haarlem , he lives in Rotterdam) works in the tradition of the minimal and concrete art. With very few and basic visual elements like line, volume, and monochromatic color space, he makes his artistic statement. The basic phenomena of nature, light and space, is his theme; making the spectator aware of them is his aesthetic intention.

 

His paintings, executed directly on the wall, are monumental. They are a part of the architecture and a comment on it. An over dimensional part of the wall space is usually defined by a heavy monochromatic color space, the color he chooses is determined by the surrounding space, it could be complementary or a contrast to it; a few lines he uses are continuation of the lines that exist in the space around, the painting becomes thus a part of its surroundings, accenting thereby some aspects of the architecture that otherwise may not be registered.

 

The monochromatic use of color does not leave anything ambiguous; the expression becomes crystal clear and pure. The surface is a color, nothing more and nothing less. The color field in its monstrosity creates a mood, a sensation that could be overwhelming. Since no nuances arrest the eyes, they wander to the borders of the color field, drawn with extreme precision, this leads to other lines in the space drawn by the artist or those that exist around anyway. The lines drawn are very sharp, they could be 3 mm or 5 mm in thickness and some meters in length. The sharpness and precision of the lines are sometimes highlighted by making use of sharply cut metal objects that are installed on the wall, thus incorporating also the sculptural element, besides the architectural and the painterly elements, in the final "work" of Sigmund De Jong.

 

Sigmund De Jong has been showing his “Wall Concepts” in Holland and Germany since decades and has been invited to show his work in Pune by the India Art Gallery in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Pune .