Untitled_Squiggles_s_0223 Painting

The paintings contain basic shapes that are repeated in a system until the work is finished. His choice to use Mahogany wood known for its rich color and natural drawings, creates a striking contrast with the bright, harsh plastic colors, thereby enhancing the visual appeal of the artwork. ‘This series of “paintings that are not really paintings” (the artist’s words) are an interesting development for den Houter. They are, in a sense, deconstructions of abstract paintings because they breakdown the usual technique of making a painting on a canvas with brushes and acrylic or oil paint, a method that relies on hand movements, and is based in drawing. The mark of the hand is evident in most paintings and is so intrinsic to the art of painting that it defines most artwork made that way, even prior to Modernism. Modern Art, which really begins with Post-Impressionism, elevated the brush stroke to the highest status, so that by the early 20th century artists like Matisse were creating canvases that exulted exuberant brush strokes and the mark of the hand, and by mid-20th century, the American Abstract Expressionists would make the brushstroke their signature motif. By contrast, den Houter’s method of creating dots, lines and shapes has no relation to the properties of paint, drawing and mark making, although one might assume they did upon a casual inspection. Rather, the myriad of lines that appear in his “paintings” are created by way of a process more related to furniture making- use of inlay. The artist carves the lines out of mahogany wood panels with a router, so they are initially negative shapes; these are then filled with epoxy resin that has been tinted with bright, highly saturated colors, and eventually meticulously sanded down to a perfectly flat surface. The dots and lines that appear in these works, while resembling the kind of mark made by a painter are really related more to sculpture techniques- carving and casting. So these “paintings that are not really paintings” are actually painting surrogates, related to Allan McCollum’s plaster paintings that he also refers to as “surrogates”. Beyond this intriguing theory is the formal beauty of these works. Polychromatic, and surrounded by the neutral hue of the natural mahogany wood, the colors sing and vibrate.