Olav Vorsel (1922–2007) - z.t.

Monumental, strongly expressionist painting by Olav Vorsel (1922–2007), executed on board and with a size of approximately 175 × 122 cm. The subject is dominated by a strongly distorted human figure, built up from powerful, almost anatomically suggestive color bands and contours. The head is depicted in profile, with a markedly enlarged eye as the visual focal point. Below unfolds a broad body in which bent and crossing forms grasp each other.

Deep red, carmine and orange-red dominate the figure and contrast sharply with the dark blue and black background. Accents in pink, yellow, green, light blue and white emphasize the dynamic image structure. The paint is applied locally in a very paste-like manner, with visible brushstrokes, relief-like accumulations and scratched, drawing-like lines. The combination of heavy paint material and quirky contours gives the surface a pronounced physical painterliness.

On the back stands the name “Vorsel.” On the left side of the board a piece of the support is locally missing; this is visible in the detail photo.

Artist biography
Olav Vorsel (1922–2007) was the artist’s pseudonym of A.O.M.C. (Guus) van Rijckevorsel. After a career in the book world, he devoted himself entirely to his art from 1969; his first dated paintings date from the late seventies. Vorsel was self-taught and developed an extensive oeuvre of paintings, gouaches, drawings and studies. His early painting is predominantly expressive and figurative, with free forms, strong colors and often a very impasto treatment. From the mid-1980s his compositions gradually became more ordered and form-locked, after which he further moved toward geometric abstraction. In the eighties his work was shown at Galerie ABCD in Paris, Galerie Edison in The Hague, Galerie Artes in Amsterdam and at several exhibition venues in the Netherlands.