Jaap Ploos van Amstel - 1960s mixed media - "transient" - signed - Sold

• Jaap Ploos van Amstel (1926-2022) had an open mind and an inquisitive mind. His work often balances between figuration and abstraction, a broad middle ground where he feels at home. As an artist he has always played an active role in Dutch art life and despite his advanced age he is still working.

Working in series
Jaap Ploos van Amstel almost always worked in series. They arise spontaneously, out of curiosity for other, new possibilities and variations on a theme. There is all sorts of things that inspire him; travel impressions, archaeological excavations, animals, fruit or people in motion. But also the mechanical, technical aspect and sometimes extravagant appearance of airplanes, ships, an old steamroller or bicycle bell fascinate him.
Beauty of decay, erosion and wear
The beauty of decay, erosion and wear is processed with great attention to the structure and the 'skin' of the material. As in a series of fifteen large gates, which he made in the period 1980-2007. He builds up the paint skin in layers, creating intense, saturated colours.
Something sublime
About his choice of landscape motifs, such as a crater or a rocky coast, he says: 'I find it impressive, just as an elephant is impressive. Because of the plasticity and the massiveness. There is something sublime about it. The sublime is close to my heart. The idea that the beautiful and the terrifying are close together, I am sensitive to that. My Breton coasts have that too. Beauty and hardness.'