Observation Post Painting

Cécile van Hanja born in Corsica (1964) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) in 1993. Currently she lives and works in Haarlem (The Netherlands). She was selected by the La Napoule Art foundation for an artist in residence at the Château La Napoule in France and she obtain a 2 years grant from the Mondrian foundation(a governmental fund) in Amsterdam. In 2014 she was chosen by an international jury initiated by Saatchi Art to show her work in London at the Griffin Gallery. Her work is in different private collections in France, Germany, US, Switzerland, UK, Japan and in the Netherlands. Her work was also selected by Saatchi Art for the Samsung Architecture collection. Her work is represented by Galerie BMB in Amsterdam (NL), The Lisa Norris Gallery in London (UK) ,Rob de Vries Gallery in Haarlem (NL) and currently by Fremin Gallery in New York (USA). Cécile van Hanja about her work: My earliest childhood I've spent in the South of France, a land where everything was different than in the Netherlands, the country I moved to when I was 8 years old. For a long time this new surrounding felt like I was loosing my roots in an alien country. This and the impressive man-made structure of my new homeland appeared to be essential for my artistic calling in my later paintings. From a birds eye view the Netherlands looks like a painting of Piet Mondrian. The same straight lines one can find in my compositions. Mondrian was initiator of 'De Stijl' a movement with radical new ideas of lifestyle based on harmony and unity. It was part of the bigger movement of the Modernism. Besides the clear abstract formed language of the abstract composition, I am fascinated by the ideas of hope and prosperity resulting from the desire of creating a new order by this movement at the beginning of the 20th century. The architecture of Bauhaus and 'De Stijl' reflects order in a time of chaos. Same as architects like Mies van de Rohe, Richard Neutra, Gerrit Rietveld and Le Corbusier, I want to emphasize the immaterial aspect of a building by creating open spaces. In my paintings the images of modern architecture are based on a rhythmical pattern of verticals and horizontals in which an multi coloured labyrinth of spaces and look-throughs is created.