Jan van Munster (* 1939 Gorinchem NL) is an important artist in light sculptures . Since the 70s, light is an integral part of his work. Pave the way ‘Traditional’ sculptures made out of wood, stone, clay and bronze paved the way. Then he introduced newly developed mass materials as plastics. Then he shifts his field for unusual materials: the basic elements such as cold, heat, electricity and magnetism. It follows finally the light work on.
How varied the materials are he uses, from the start his topic is the one thing: energy, the essence of life. He approaches this theme from all kind of views, in different forms and ever changing effects.
Energy affects all forms of life: vital energy, mental energy, emotional energy, forms of energy in natural and spiritual science, Jan van Munster investigates them all. He doesn’t study only the intellectual side, but its sensory experience. Tests and experiments lead him to the core of his work: the realities which everyone can perceive as, simultaneously, the invisible and unknowable.
Shape, mass and the intangible are united in an remarkable (aesthetic) way as contemplative truth.
In this way, Van Munster finds also his theme ‘Brainwaves’. The story is familiar to many. The artist puts himself the question “Why do I always have to invent new forms, whereas my brains bring them forth?” By means of EEG’s in the late 90s, he had his brain activity mapped and made visible into graphics. The wavy line drawings arising from this, he translates into light tubes filled neon (red) or argon (blue).
This gives rise to works as “Clone” and the famous “IK-light”. With his ‘Brainwaves’ Van Munster comes up with his motto: “It must be possible to draw my whole story in one pencil line”.
“Brainwaves” is shown and to be experienced in the gallery until July 18, 2010. The exhibition shows light-sculptures and pyrographies as a brief overview about the different stages of the artist’s work. It can be seen as a small preview of a major project that ‘will see the light’ next year.
The exhibition also includes a display. It shows the elaborate concept of Jan van Munster for a European project: IK / MOI / ICH / …..
With IK (‘I’), a word with an individual meaning for everyone. It distinguishes each one from everything else / everyone else. But what or who is ‘I’, ‘I’ is the essence of what? This theme also appears regularly in the artist’s work, for example in his famous IK- lamps or IK-sculptures. IK is also ICH and includes MOI, IO, etc., because the question applies to every-one and in all languages and cultures. From there the idea arose the IK-project. It is a sequel to his earlier Plus Minus (+ -) initiative, about which more later.
The artist sees his IK, ICH, MOI expressed through a network of sculptures in architectural form, connecting people and cultures. He himself has initiated the first IK to realize. His intention is to carry out the other words in the respective language areas with the same principle of construction: steel bars, metal plates and glass elements according to specific proportions in which effects of tension – a characteristic of his work – such as light-dark, open-closed will play an important role.
The idea ‘IK’ originates in an earlier realization, the Plus Minus (+ -) project. Between 1996 and 2003 an impressive series of exhibitions was organized by the eponymous foundation, which has been passed into the current StichtingIK.
The concept of StichtingIK is as simple as particular: a by stichtingIK appointed curator selects one or more artists who work(s) during a period of time in one of the buildings and make(s) a presentation in the other. Occasionally a trustee of the Foundation can be the curator. The premise is that four to five exhibitions per year are realized. The concept of Min Plus, artists working in situ, will continue, though in another, more urban and therefore dynamic environment. (www.stichtingik.com).
Openingstijden – heures d’ouvertures – opening hours: vrijdag t/m zondag – vendredi jusqu’ au dimanche – Friday up to Sunday inclusive: 12.00 – 18.00 uur- heurs-hours +
op afspraak – sur rendez-vous- by appointment, ook voor informatie voor groepsrondleidingen.
Exhibition runs until July 18 2010