Impressions of AsiaThe colourful works of John van der Sterren |
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John van der Sterren is a renowned artist who came to painting later in life, after a career in advertising. Born in Java in the late 1930s from Dutch parents, John grew up in New Zealand but returned to Indonesia for good in 1980. He lives and paints in Jogyakarta. His first exhibition in Jakarta in 1993 was a great success and his work has been widely acclaimed and collected ever since. John’s paintings cover a wide range of landscapes, famous heritage buildings and portraits. John has travelled and painted extensively in South East Asia and Europe. He immerses himself in the culture of the places he visits, and does his best to capture the essence of his own impressions of them; the result of these new and varied experiences have inspired great exhibitions and contributed to John’s present international success. His emotional ties to the fabled temple of Borobudur and the mysterious volcanoes of Java have inspired him and appear in many of his paintings. He has also painted several versions of the Great Wall of China, various sites in Bali and Java, and of course picturesque landmarks in Singapore, such as the Old Supreme Court building, Peranakan houses, and St Andrew’s Cathedral. In his words, “When painting those, I am often conscious of the spirits of the past, and the people who created them and lived in them are now seemingly forgotten, but in a sense, still live through these old structures (…) Depicting them in strong and vivid colors, in a way, revives and rejuvenates them.” John loves to draw, he says: “Good drawing is the basis for all good painting and I spend much of my time sketching landscapes and heritage buildings , wherever I see something that interests me. I then use these drawings back in my studio, to inspire me to capture the feeling and the soul of that object.” In that sense, this exhibition does not attempt to depict the reality of the subjects selected, but rather to translate the spirit of these places through the artist’s colourful vision.
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