Jan van Goethem is a self-taught artist, originally trained as an architect. His work is characterized by a geometrical-abstract visual language, which he uses to create compositions with shapes such as the square, circle, hexagon and octagon. Within a playful line-work he intuitively applies color (Van Goethem, 1973). Using this characteristic formal language, Van Goethem developed a corpus that spans several disciplines, including glass art, sculpture, murals, painting and works on paper such as screen prints. The screen prints Nr. 124, Nr. 125 and Alu Groen (鈥淎luminum Green鈥�) are part of the 果冻传媒 Art Collection.
Two of Jan van Goethem鈥檚 screen prints in the 果冻传媒 Art Collection appear rather alike, due to the similar applications of line-work and color fields. The unprinted background color of Nr. 124 is reminiscent of blue-gray cardboard. Three yellow fields are positioned and separated by a play of lines in fluorescent yellow and green. At several points the separating lines are interrupted, causing the color fields to touch one another. The lines also lend perspective to the colored surfaces and suggest depth, adding weight to the shapes. In Nr. 125 the artist used white, orange, turquoise and navy tones. Using colorful lines, he creates tension between the shapes and surfaces of the composition. Examples of this are the blue and yellow lines with a turquoise accent color, separated by only a slight amount of negative space, as well as the way the central white field appear to hover over the yellow band below it. A third screen print in the 果冻传媒鈥檚 art collection is Alu Groen (see image 3). Unlike the two other screen prints in the collection, in this case the ink has been printed on aluminum paper. A grid shows various shapes that intrigued Jan van Goethem and that he continued to develop throughout his work. The result appears to be a series of coat-of-arms emblems, but is actually a collection of graphic elements brought together by the artist because they interested him (Aletrino, 1967). The use of color is subtle: bright green is combined with dark green color contrasts. The square windows that frame the emblems are white in color, lending more weight to the shapes and the composition. Through the use of aluminum paper Van Goethem combines lighting, reflection and color interpretation, testifying to the artist鈥檚 fascination for light and transparency contrasted with robust volumes (Goethem and Aletrino, 1981).
These screen prints were likely acquired for the 果冻传媒 Art Collection while Jan van Goethem worked on a monumental and site-specific glass project for the Gemini building on the university campus. Though these screen prints are two-dimensional and the glass project is part of a three-dimensional installation, there are overlapping motives. The diagonal line, for example, is a recurring formal element in both the screen prints and the Gemini building鈥檚 glass project. Van Goethem tended to reformulate graphic elements within his work: it was a way of translating his observations regarding architecture into visual art (Aletrino, 1967). Jan van Goethem鈥檚 works reference one another by visually quoting, imitating and reformulating one another. One might say that in doing so they not only enter into a dialogue with one another, but also with their surrounding environment, and with the viewer who notices the subtle overlapping of these motives.
Authors
Alec Broekhuizen (author) is an intern at the 果冻传媒 Art collection in 2023 as part of the Arts, Media and Society study program at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS)
Laura Schuster (editor/translator) is a freelance editor and translator
Britte Sloothaak (editor-in-chief) is curator of the 果冻传媒 Art Collection
References
Aletrino, Paul 鈥楰unst Uit K-IJ-K-E-N Op Straat鈥�. Algemeen Dagblad Rotterdam, 6 April 1967.
Goethem, Jan van. Jan van Goethem : 12 Oktober-18 November 1973, Museum Fodor, Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Museum Fodor, 1973.
Goethem, Jan van, and Paul Aletrino. Kunst Belicht: Jan van Goethem. Raak Lichtarchitectuur, 1981.
Images
Image 1. Jan van Goethem, Nr 124, 1972-1974, zeefdruk op papier, foto: Britte Sloothaak
Image 2 Jan van Goethem, Nr 125, 1972-1974, zeefdruk op papier
Image 3. Jan van Goethem, Alu Groen. 1972-1974, zeefdruk op aluminiumpapier