Stijn Peeters is fascinated by 19th-century French painting especially the ‘grande genre’, which is the Champions League of painting. Large scale works with overpowering imagery of historical facts or metaphors for references to classical texts. The mix of history and the contemporary labeled these enormous paintings ‘Grandes Machines’. They were aimed at playing a role in the public debate when they were presented during the fashionable Parisian art salons. Chios-Idomeni is a painting from Eugene Delacroix, his second large work and presented in the salon in 1824 it refers to 11 April 1822, when the Ottomans attacked the isle of Chios because of Greek rebellion against the Turks. The campaign resulted in the deaths of twenty thousand citizens, and the forced deportation into slavery of almost all the surviving seventy thousand inhabitants. 

Stijn Peeters: I saw links in the invasion of Iraq, the ideological wars between the West and the East, the Orient. This fascination with the Orient in the 19th century, as an environment where one could express one’s longing for freedom, in every imaginable way. And the recent fear of (radical) Islam as a major threat to our way of life, the liberties we value. These opposing views triggered my imagination. The large work 300 x 325 cm, Chios Idomeni 1814-2016, is painted with acrylic paint on unstretched canvas. It shows – like in a frieze, suffering characters, military might, ornate and colourful costumes, terror, disease and death, in front of a scene of widespread desolation.

In addition to large-scale works on show at Europaeische Werte, Stijn Peeters furthers his publication project ‘Ezel’, of which there are currently 4 editions. The ‘Ezel’ (English translation ‘Donkey’ or painter’s ‘Easel’) editions are Stijn Peeters’s artist-diaries in which he processes his analogous archives; letters, transcripts, telephone notes, books, noteworthy newspapers cuttings and other media of the non-digitalized world. The original drawings of Ezel edition No.3, which actually deals with Stijn Peeters’s ‘Grandes Machines’ fascination, will also be on exhibited.

An Artist book titled 10.000 has been produced by Stijn Peeters to commemorate his solo show Eurpaeische Werte. 10.000 refers to the announcement made by Europol on 30 January 2016 that at least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared after arriving in Europe. The plight of unaccompanied child refugees has emerged as one of the most pressing issues in the migrant crisis. The drawings in the artist book 10.000 were made in preparation for the Chios-Idomeni 1824 -2016 painting.

Stijn Peeters

Stijn Peeters lives and works in Eindhoven (NL). His artistic practice includes since his beginnings at the Royal Academie for art and Design ’s Hertogenbosch (NL) and Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL) mainly drawings and paintings . – To that he says: The movement made by my hand supports my thinking. I store information better and it helps with analyzing what I have seen and experience and to internalize it. A bit later painting joined in too, always being nevertheless closely related to the sign, with regard to its gesture.

His works have been presented in various solo and group exhibitions, predominantly in the Netherlands. In 1992 he received the Philip Morris Prize. His works are in private and public collections, amongst others, Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo and Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.

Location

DAS ESSZIMMER – Raum für Kunst+
Mechenstraße 25
D – 53129 Bonn-Kessenich
Tel. +49 (0)228 538 766 12
E: emaildassesszimmer

Ezel Publications

Stijn Peeters
Autobiografische studie van een kunstenaarsleven
Ezel No. 1 (third edition)
Ezel No. 2 (second edition)
Ezel No. 3 (themed Grandes Machines”)
Ezel No. 4

Each publication
Pages: 24 pg – selfcover
Product dimensions: 28 x 20 cm
Print: Manual Riso print two colours
Edition, 250 ex.
Price: € 15, – (excluded postage)
Printed at Jan Van Eijck – Charles Nijpels Lab
Available in the shop.

10.000 artist book

Accompanying Europaeische Werte
by Stijn Peeters
Pages: 24 pg – self-cover
Product dimensions: 20,5 x 14,5 cm
Paper: Muncken paper
Print: Manual Riso print black
Edition, 50 ex.
Price: € 15, – (excluded postage)
Printed at Wobbyclub Tilburg
Available in the shop.
See the publications
Website Stijn Peeters