A Touch of Light

In 2023, Museum Kranenburgh will present A Touch of Light, an exhibition with which the museum aims to offer light in (these) dark times. The works in the exhibition depict seemingly self-evident but actually elusive moments in which the natural phenomenon of light plays a central role. The exhibition is therefore not an escape from reality, but invites reflection, contemplation, and stillness; a tool to face reality with renewed courage.

The selected works, including paintings, photography, and an installation, share an atmospheric and often poetic character. The artists are driven by the desire to capture ‘the immaterial’ in pigment, paint, or other materials. Light makes colors and shapes visible, but how do you paint light? How do you give shape to something that is extremely elusive? Something that is also constantly changing? Each of the artists in the exhibition gives shape to the sensations of light in their own way.

Manifestations of light

Edgar Fernhout (1912-1974) was fascinated by the light in the Bergen landscape. In abstract representations, he depicted light and the atmosphere of different seasons in the landscape. Esther Tielemans (1976) uses the experience of landscapes and skies as a starting point and investigates the extent to which abstract concepts such as form, color, and proportion determine and influence the experience of space. The young artist Caja Boogers (2001) focuses in his work on reflections of light on ice surfaces, which he paints using combined techniques.

The representation of light plays an important role not only in painting. Ann Veronica Janssens (1956), for example, creates installations and sculptures without fixed forms in which manifestations of light play an important role (steam, mist, optical illusions, colors). Photography is also a medium in which light is of great importance. Photographer Viviane Sassen (1972) literally filters light with (visible) color filters in her surreal photographs.

Composition

The exhibition was curated by artistic director Colin Huizing and guest curator Nanda Janssen. Nanda Janssen is a curator and art critic, as well as visual arts intendant for the Dutch embassy in France. She lives in Paris.