Hans Pruijn (XX) - Paaldansen

Dear Reader,

Hereby I offer a splendid acrylic on canvas painting titled "Paaldansen" by Hans Pruijn.
Dimensions: height 70 cm x width 90 cm.
Signature Hans Pruijn on front and back.
Purchased in 2011 for €2250, (see invoice photo).

In very good condition.

Poem for Hans Pruijn "Palen" (see photo)
Article "Hans Pruijn lets you be only with the forces of nature" (see photo).

Reviews including Art-garden Drenthe (1); Municipality of Zeist Visual Arts (2); De Gelderlander (3); Martin Pieterse Art Critic (4); De Gelderlander during Velp exhibition (5); Structural dualism (6).

1.
Hans Pruijn is an exponent of figurative painting on the national stage. His figuration is rooted in surrealism and has a humorous edge. The figures have a realistic and dramatic character through their appearance, their posture (often viewed from the back or from the side), and the environment in which they appear. It is work with a strong emotional resonance, not based on intricate intentions but simply relying on the power of imagination and skilled craftsmanship to convey emotions and evoke moods. He succeeds in not making the painting process so absolute that the paintings would collapse under it. His canvases show a lot of variety, also in style. The work is both realistic and carefully detailed—cultured—yet wild and abstract—raw. That combination makes his work appealing and often results in visual spectacle. Hans always knows how to insert the right amount of playfulness into his work, giving the paintings contemporary relevance.

2.
The human being and nature in his or her surroundings form the starting point in Hans Pruijn’s work. The spatiality and belonging to it fascinate him. He translates this fascination into extraordinarily engaging and often expressive images. A person, landscape elements, a reference to architecture. "Painting is telling your own story. I keep reality at a distance so I can bend it to my will and manipulate it as I want." As a viewer you can let your imagination run free and continually assign new interpretations to his work. The suggestively applied elements sometimes give the work an underlying charge. Broadly laid out and with sometimes bold material treatment an atmosphere is imparted to the work. He places the figures mostly in a mythical environment so that some images acquire a dreamlike quality, despite his direct and pure method of working. He often uses the paint directly from the tube. At other times he works in a strongly diluted form or uses spray cans. This gives more power and speed. At a certain moment his feelings seem clear, a moment later that moment has passed again.
It is monumental work that possesses a prominent yet agitated expressive quality. Letting your eyes wander, you embark on a voyage of discovery that keeps presenting you with new surprises.

3.
As if we are dwelling in higher realms...
But, admittingly, viewing art is an effort. How do you look? How long? With which gaze and from which background.
Hans Pruijn’s paintings (born 1957) do not let you walk away easily. He is a painter with flair. And painters with flair like to visit Guus Dijkhuizen in Class Five. After nine exhibitions, everyone is somewhat aware of this. Pruijn paints. He paints to the point of ecstasy, and his brushstrokes and colors are vibrant. Intense work. Dare to look at it, and it pulls you in. And it carries you along. What do we see? For Pruijn it is not only an artisanal matter. His paintings, which are generously large, contextualize, interpret, analyze, dream, and tempt. And people appear. Something always happens, but it is not handed to you on a plate. If a painting by Pruijn moves you, you’re sold. Take the work 'Three Meters Before Lunch.' Bent figures work in the fields. They are being uprooted, harvested. Soon it will be eaten. The food. Raw or cooked. It doesn’t matter. For whom? You don’t need to know. In the foreground we see an attaché case. A small office case in which you can carry documents and papers, your lunch. Your potato salad or sandwiches. With a piece of goodies or fruit. Who wonders, while eating a sandwich or muesli, what preceded all that...
That kind of thing. Or the painting 'Builder' in which a boy and a small crane and a big pile of basalt blocks that cannot possibly be hoisted by that small crane exist.
A gallery should be full of people who are amazed by what they see, who laugh about it or who are moved by it. And then discuss it with each other...

4.
Hans Pruijn is a prime example of the rising trend in figurative painting with a surreal touch. He distorts, exaggerates, blurs, in short, he intensifies reality. Melancholy lurks in his work, but still his paintings are not somber. The works often feature open spaces in which the viewer can lose themselves in thought. Precisely because Pruijn engages so intensely with the grotesque, you are not pulled into mournfulness, you do not sink into the empty gaze of his anonymous figures. In a caricature, extremely exaggerated details and hints of humor belong, and this is found in ample measure in Pruijn’s work. Pruijn manages to convincingly depict both detail and the larger context, enabling him to master the underlying mood in his work. He shows that personal narrative still has value within art after a decade of cool, registrational observations of reality.

5.
When Hans Pruijn places the backgrounds of his paintings on the canvas, he apparently uses a trowel instead of a brush or palette knife. Dramatic paint strokes for powerful landscapes, with dark thunderclouds above wide panoramas. And then, in that moved setting, there stands a man in a ill-fitting suit, silently looking at his yo-yo, painted far more delicately than his surroundings. The effect is surreal. Through a combination of intense and restrained paint strokes his work has something of the highly beautiful paintings and interpretations of Spanish Baroque painters like Murillo. Then it doesn’t matter whether the figures are harvesting a field of coal, or dancing a sensuous tango. That touch too much drama makes Pruijn’s paintings particularly strong and 'fun.'

6.
Hans is a painter who, in a skilled way, combines suggestion and figuration in a single image. He seeks the tension between meaning and matter and thus presents the viewer with expressive, dramatic images.

A through-line in Hans Pruijn’s work is the structural dualism between human, nature, and culture. Realism takes on an unreal appearance in his work. Different cultures, times, and spheres are combined and connected like a collage. This gives his motifs a strange intensity. His work is dynamic and expressive. The boundaries between light and shadow, air, land, and man are sharp. The colors are strong and high in contrast, and the paint is applied notably powerfully. Perspective reinforces this dynamic impression. He places his characters mostly in the foreground of his paintings, absorbed in themselves, excluded from the background. Sometimes your eye is drawn to a color or a remarkable brushstroke. Then you notice that none of the figures looks at you. The work thus gains a deliberately anonymous character for the viewer. The gaze is averted. As if the portrait is determined by the fact that there is one look intended for the outside world and one intended for the portraitee themselves. Thus he projects his desires and dreams onto the perceptual world of his painted characters. The play of colors does not completely sever the relationships between people and surroundings but creates coherence. Yet reality is kept at a distance, so your imagination is endlessly stimulated.

About Hans Pruijn

Hans Pruijn (1957) graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem. He lives and works in his studio-home with the “TOONKAMER” on Steynlaan in Zeist where he exhibits his paintings, often in combination with works by fellow artists. A through-line in his work is the structural dualism between human/nature and culture. His material use and color are vibrant and abundant. Dare to look and it pulls you in. His paintings contextualize, explain, analyze, dream and entice. For him, it is more about the atmosphere and experience of a landscape than a precise, faithful representation of reality. The often-present poles in his painted landscapes provide a path back, offering support/stability—a common route in our lives.